Oh my god
It's so strange to think that like this is what I look like in a 3D form.
Before we get any further some important context: there's a life-size statue of me in a park. But
it's not just me, I'm one of 121 statues of real living scientists. Don't we look cool?
So now you may be wondering... why are there 121 statues of scientists in a park?
And how did they all get there? Well that, my friends, is a story that involves a big idea,
cutting edge technology and one thing that's wrong with statues as we know them.
Two years ago I found myself in a room, in the back of a museum,
going through the motions of becoming a statue. This all came about because
i'm an if/then ambassador. I'm one of more than 120 women from all different science,
tech, engineering and maths careers that serve as role models for middle school girls. We're
kind of like a big justice league but our superpowers are like coding and curiosity.
The purpose of that is to really create a culture shift in how
particularly little girls but the world sees women in STEM.
This is Nicole Small,
the CEO of Lyda Hill Philanthropies who started the whole if/then initiative.
And really change the perspective and help people
understand that there's so many cool STEM jobs right, there's just so many things you can do.
And the benefits of initiatives like if /hen are for everyone – to share that you don't
need to look like a crazed genius and work in a lab to be a scientist. You can be anyone,
from anywhere ,and work with things like power tools, bears, geometry,
soccer teams and rare galaxies. But what does this have to do with statues?
I'm guessing you probably haven't thought that much about statues. But statues are kind of a
big deal. For thousands of years cultures around the world built statues in the names of artistic,
political and historic remembrance. Even if you think you're not influenced by statues
these monuments speak volumes about the state of society...
just consider the lengths people go to to tear them down in the name of protest.
But statues have not celebrated achievements equally. A 2016 analysis found that in the 12
largest US cities there were less than six statues of real women.
And fictional characters and goddesses like Lady Liberty, Alice in Wonderland and this
mother duck don't count as real women. As former US treasurer Rosie Rios said:
this is the way we're representing our history and we're missing half our population.
Once you hear that statistic you can't unhear it, and by the way, once you see these statues
you can't unsee them. And so everywhere we were going all of a sudden we were like yeah
there are no statues of women, particularly like real women, right?
Broadly this analysis led to a new statue initiative, which has seen new statues be
installed, like the first statue of real women in central park. But statues don't always have
to be big historic figures or royalty: we can celebrate living everyday people who are doing
inspiring work and breaking barriers. As Rios said in a recent TEDx talk, we "need
inspirations in order to have aspirations." So for Nicole and her group of amazing STEM ambassadors
there was an opportunity to do something really cool,
like sharing the inspirational stories of these women in STEM. Women like Minerva Cordero,
a professor of mathematics whose passion is monumental all on its own.
Mathematics is the queen of all sciences. Everything you do has to do with mathematics,
right? And you want to look at statistics, you want to look at data encoding information.
Making a movie, you couldn't make a movie if some mathematicians had not decided how do
we encrypt this information? Save it so then when you project it you get exactly what you recorded?
Side note thank you to all of the mathematicians that made this program possible.
Minerva's so passionate that she kept talking to passers-by about geometry applications.
i have a new job title for you – after all of this as well as being a professor
of mathematics and a statue you're a maths cheerleader.
So it comes across absolutely I do love what I do, and you know the passion kind of shows right?
So how does a professor became a statue who might inspire others to get started in STEM?
Nicole had this idea, really was her idea, which was can we make 3D prints? Meet Andy,
who had the job of figuring out how to create 121 statues. Which involved a lot of questions:
Is it even possible you know to do life-size 3D prints?
Were there even printers available?
Is it possible to do 3D scans full scale or you know human form? Could
you actually print this many? Does that technology even exist?
Could you do them in a way that could withstand sort of being out in the public?
Producing more than 120 statues is an incredible undertaking – I mean a couple of thousand years
ago it took an estimated 700 000 labourers and 40 years to complete the terracotta warriors!
We probably had like 50 people tell us we were crazy. But you know what's really fun?
When people tell you you're crazy and you're like it's crazy, but can we do it?
And yeah, they could do it! I mean i've already given you a pretty big
spoiler alert. And printing me in 3D was quicker than I would have thought.
Generally speaking it's we say 12 to 14 hours, and then there's finishing and painting afterwards.
Painting them all bright orange, I'll add. But the vibrant colours that kind
of twinkle in the sunlight make them even more special to meet and interact with.
My first reaction ID it just brought back so many memories of what it took to get to this
point. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and I loved mathematics since a very early
age. And when I was finishing college one of my professors said, "hey why don't you get a PhD in
mathematics?" And i'm not sure that's for me. And she said, "you should try, go to the United States
and get a PhD." I had to leave Puerto Rico to come to the States to get a PhD, which was very
hard because I was very close to my family. But I did it! And thanks to her, to my mentor, and
so many people along the way, really help you and impact what you do and get you to where you are.
Like Minerva, many of the statues are ordinary people who do extraordinary work.
And that was kind of the point.
One of the other main things we did not want to do is put you all on pedestals, you know, have you
sort of somehow like a typical iron statue. What we wanted to say was no, these women are all
around us, they're all doing amazing things, and you just don't know about it, you know?
So of course I had to meet the statues for myself... including meeting myself. In the past
i'd only seen a handful of statues displayed together, but everything is bigger in Texas.
I'm a bit nervous because I've never met myself in 3D before,
but first I have to find where I am... so let's go!
How hilarious! It's so weird to think is this what I actually look like.
There's some spiders webs on me as well. This is a very very strange phenomenon.
I'm quite tall, aren't I?
Yep, it's pretty strange to have a statue of yourself. Of course the exhibit is here
to inspire others, but for me it also led to a shift in how I viewed myself.., in a good way.
There's a lot of imposter syndrome, this is very common with women who work in STEM. I have had
this kind of shift over the past six months where i've had this thought like, "am I good enough to
be in this room? Am i doing the right thing? Like is this deserved?" You know, all those
kinds of self-doubts that you have go through your mind. And i just sit there I'm like, I have
a freaking statue, you know? It's been this kind of boost in a way in, in how I view my successes.
Okay so there was still one thing on my mind. You know that I like to have
a practical take-home message for you guys in these videos.
So for everyone watching at home, what do they need to do to become a statue?
That is a great question! You know what, find something they're passionate about,
right? Find somebody to look up to, like you, and like follow your passion,
right? I hope people go out and inspire to change the world because they want to. Getting
to be a statue is like an added bonus these days, right, it's like icing on the cupcake right now!
Thinking about following your passion is nothing new.
But rethinking who we celebrate in society and who gets to be turned into statues
is evidence that sometimes – the most ordinary thing you can do can have an extraordinary impact.
Do you mind if I get a selfie?