Little Miss Role Model engineers new career
WITH such celebrated characters as Little Miss Bossy and Little Miss Giggles, the popular children’s Mr Men series may seem an unlikely front in the battle against gender stereotypes.
But the latest addition to the collection, a female engineer, is intended to be a “positive role model” for girls, the author and illustrator Adam Hargreaves has said.
Little Miss Inventor, who has pencils and a spanner sticking out of her bright green curly hair, will become the 36th Little Miss character. The book synopsis describes her as having a brain “full of ideas” which she then turns into “extraordinary inventions” in a shed at the bottom of her garden.
Mr Hargreaves, the son of Roger Hargreaves, the creator of the Mr Men books, who died in 1988, said that while his main role is “entertaining children with fun stories”, another important part of his job is to come up with “positive role models”.
“I always enjoy creating a brand new character for the series and it was fun coming up with lots of crazy inventions for Little Miss Inventor’s home and silly ones for all her friends,” he told the BBC.
“It’s also been nice to write a story that promotes a positive role model and to challenge a stereotype, if only in a small way.”
The Little Miss Inventor book will go on sale on March 8 2018 to coincide with International Women’s Day and British Science Week.
Her inventions include a backpacksnack-attack fridge for Mr Greedy and a chatter-natter hat for Little Miss Chatterbox.