Amelia Earhart: An Inspiration for Women Everywhere

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on the 24th of July in 1897. Growing up, Amelia was an energetic and spirited child who enjoyed exploring the world around her. She would constantly climb trees and loved to hunt rats with a rifle, and at one point even built a model of a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to St. Louis. When she mounted the home-made contraption she came out with an injured lip. From that moment on she was hooked, and said that it had been “just like flying!”

On December 28th of 1920 Amelia experienced the ride of her life that would forever change her. Riding on a plane flown by Frank Hawks is when Earhart said she knew “I had to fly.” Amelia had to work for her dream, and had numerous jobs, in order to pay for her own flight lessons. She showed strength and determination in order to reach her goal and dreams of becoming a pilot.

Earhart not only accomplished her dream of learning how to fly, but she also managed to break records. Only two years after her first ride on a plane, she flew at an altitude of 14,000 feet, and set a new world record for female pilots everywhere. A year after her record, she became the 16th woman to receive her pilots license. Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 made history. Amy Phipps Guest expressed interest in being the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic, and follow in Lindbergh’s footsteps. However Guest soon realized the trip would be to much for her to handle, and decided to find "another girl with the right image." and sponser her to complete the trip. Earhart was that girl. She accompanied Wilmer Stultz and his co-pilot Louis Gordon on the flight. After landing in Burry Port Wales she decided that “someday I’ll try it alone”

In 1937 Earhart began planning a solo flight across the globe. It took two tries before she finally left the ground. When she was near Howland Island she slowly began to lose contact with Itasca. Her last known radio transmission was at 8:43am "We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait." Soon she was back on the same frequency (3105 kHz)"We are running on line north and south.". Her transmissions seemed to indicate that she believed she had reached Howlands charted position, but she did not.

Close to an hour after receiving Earharts last transmission, a search for her plane began with the help of the US Navy. On July 6 1937, after four days with no results, the battleship Colorado received orders to take over search efforts. The official serach ended on July 19th. On January 5th 1939 Earhart was pronounced as legally dead.

What happened to Earhart is, and may forever be a mystery. But her story will forever live on in the hearts of us all. She is an iconic figure to all women, for showing us that we have the power to fight for our dreams.