“Hidden Figures” might just be the most important movie Americans see all year, especially young women. The film recounts the spectacular and beyond impressive untold stories of three remarkable African-American women who worked for NASA in the 1960s during the cusp of the Space Race.
Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson worked as “computers” for NASA. More specifically, the three women were trained engineers, mathematicians, and physicists who helped astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit Earth. What makes “Hidden Figures” so remarkable is that it highlights each woman’s respective story, contribution, and dedication to help with the space program – a story that has often gone untold.
Despite the obvious disregard of Johnson, Vaughn, and Jackson’s of stories that has taken place in the past, each of these women paved the way for women of any and all races in the U.S. They excelled in the sciences and transcended both gender and racial norms for their time; by doing so, they set women of all races forth on an upward trend toward challenging societal expectations to change what was considered the norm at the time. A refreshing reminder of what has been achieved, the movie is as empowering as it is compelling, particularly at this very moment in America’s history.
Right now, our country is in the middle of dealing with of a lot of uncertainty regarding our future. With a new president coming into office in just a few days and the legacy of the previous president at stake, inspiration and hope has never been more needed. “Hidden Figures,” however, is a step in the right direction.
The film is exactly what I needed as young woman in America to reassure me of not only all of the great achievements our country has made on the whole, but also of the countless important women in our history that have paved the way for young women today to prevail in the face of new challenges.
With many of us young Americans feeling uncertain and unsure about our both our country’s and our own futures, I encourage you to go see “Hidden Figures.” If you walk away from the film with just a single takeaway, I hope that it’s a restored faith in how far our country has come and a reassurance of how much further our country will go in the future. It is up to us to affect change in the society we live in. As America’s future, let “Hidden Figures” remind you of all of the achievements the U.S. has made and the many more it can and will make.