Writing Women: 10 Authors With Must-Follow Twitter Accounts

Margot Lee Shetterley

Margot Lee Shetterly has somewhat of a singularly focused Twitter feed of late, and for good reason. She’s the author of Hidden Figures. Yes, the highly acclaimed, award-winning movie is based on her book.

A number one box office movie in America right now is based on a book by a black woman (who happens to be a Sloan Fellowship recipient and Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellow). It’s about the black women doing the math that got America’s space program off the ground. And it happens to star the multi-talented Janelle Monáe, Empress of The Milky Way. That all just makes my nerdy, liberal heart swell up 20 sizes.

I am a huge NASA fangirl, so Margot Lee Shetterly’s timeline makes me all warm inside.

Another thing she talks about on Twitter is The Human Computer Project, which she founded. Its goal is to preserve the stories of women and people of color working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. That’s a part of the American narrative that has, until now, been largely overlooked.

"The mission of the Human Computer Project is to tell the stories of the pioneering women who worked as mathematicians and “computers” at the NACA and NASA in the early days of aeronautics and the American space program. Our hope is that these role models will inspire a new generation of women and minorities to pursue careers in STEM fields, and that everyone will gain a broader sense of what mathematicians, engineers and scientists look like. #ilooklikeanengineer"

Help support Margot’s mission. Follow her on Twitter and share the love for science with everyone!