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Celebration! Danica McKellar has released her latest math book for girls, Girls Get Curves!

McKellar recently did a really thoughtful interview with NPR about her latest book, which focuses on geometry. One of my favorite parts is this bit, when she talks about taking her first college math class at UCLA:

I was actually worried about taking a math class. I didn’t know that I’d be able to handle it. And here I scored a five on an AP Calculus BC exam. Talk about perceptions. I didn’t see myself as being good at math even though I was. And that’s one of the things I’m tackling in the books. But when I did jump into that math class, despite my concerns and my fears, I did really well and I was hooked.

I was like, wow, I suddenly felt valued and important for something that had nothing to do with Hollywood. It had everything to do with something that I was building from the inside out, and you don’t have to have been on television to struggle as a teenage girl with your self-image. And that’s why I know that math is an amazing tool for all girls to find themselves, to find something that they value themselves for.

Because I admire Danica and share with her a mission of helping girls (and guys too) really GET math in a way that is fun and meaningful, I’ve read a lot of her interviews very closely (and I even got the chance to interview her myself about her third math book for Wired’s GeekMom blog — check it out here). I’ve heard her talk about how doing a difficult math problem during college would make her euphoric, and her journey of becoming a math major.

But this is the first time I’ve heard her talk about experiencing math as a refuge – a place where you can incubate and develop your own abilities and intellectual strength and work “from the inside out” in a way that has nothing to do with appearances.

This vision really resonates with me — and I hope that all girls (and guys) can experience math this way.

Would you love to experience math as a refuge – even if right now, you might not be sure that it’s possible to ever regain your confidence?

Sending you love,
REBECCA

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My interview with Danica McKellar about her latest math book for girls, Hot X: Algebra Exposed!, is now up over on the new GeekMom blog. Check it out!

McKellar, well-known for playing Winnie Cooper on “The Wonder Years,” went to college intending to study film, but signed up for math classes because her brain felt “mushy.” When solving equations felt like a “drug rush,” she became a math major and co-authored an original theorem.

Since then, McKellar has emerged as a unique math role model whose previous books, Math Doesn’t Suck and Kiss My Math, spread the message that brainy is beautiful, being good at math is just part of being fabulous, and math doesn’t have to be scary—all messages that are very close to my heart as a female math tutor.

Her latest book, Hot X: Algebra Exposed! is the first algebra book in the history of humankind to discuss both breakups and binomials. Step-by-step guidance on how to do algebra is interspersed with quizzes (“are you a perfectionist?”), stories from her own life about being an actress and a math major, and testimonials from women who use math in their careers, including a daredevil airshow pilot/astrophysics computing scientist.

When I was in middle school and crying myself to sleep over my math homework, I would have been thrilled to have an algebra book that was this friendly, encouraging, and helpful. I’ve never seen another algebra text explicitly addressing the emotional aspects of learning math, which I know from experience are so important to girls. (And it’s not just me—one of my sixth-grade tutoring students saw the book in my apartment, picked it up and exclaimed, “This is perfect for me!”)

So click on over to the GeekMom blog to read about McKellar’s own experiences being terrified of math as a 7th grader and growing up to give math a PR overhaul.

(Many people conspired to make this interview possible: Elizabeth Keenan, Ken Denmead, Liz Jones-Dilworth, Josh Jones-Dilworth, Missy Mazzoli, and Jina Moore. Thank you all!!!)

*Looking for a girl math tutor? Call 617-888-0160 for an appointment with Rebecca Zook!

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