When people ask me what my major is, I always say, “Well… the short answer is Plant Genetics.”Cue the wide eyes and the inevitable, “Whoa, you must be so smart!” comments.
(If only they knew how many nights I’ve spent crying in classes and risking heart failure on caffeine.) But honestly? I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Studying plants and genetics has been one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I have ever accomplished.Â
And while I love diving into DNA and plant science, one of the best parts of being in STEM is learning about the women who came before me. The trailblazers, the warriors, and the shakers who made it possible for someone like me to be here in the first place.
So, let’s talk about one of the OGs of women in STEM, Rosalind Franklin the DNA mother and the first true baddie I ever learned about. If you’ve ever looked at a DNA helix and thought, “Wow, how did they come up with that?” you have her to thank. Franklin was a chemist and X-ray crystallographer at King’s College London in the 1950s, back when women in science were often ignored, underestimated, or straight-up excluded.Â
While the guys around her were making big, loud claims, Rosalind was in the lab doing the quiet, painstaking work that actually mattered. She spent hours photographing DNA, running complex calculations, and producing Photo 51 — the image that revealed the helical structure of DNA.Â
However, her data was shown (without her consent) to Watson and Crick, who went on to get all the glory. The Nobel Prize and the fame were all built on her brilliance. Her colleague did not like sharing space with her, and their personalities clashed. He ended up talking with Watson and Crick at their competing lab and showed them her work.Â
Rosalind never got to see the recognition she deserved. She passed away at just 37 from ovarian cancer — but not before publishing over 45 papers and making groundbreaking contributions to research on coal, polio, and plant viruses.
She was sharp, adventurous, and unapologetically brilliant — the kind of woman who hiked mountains for fun and cracked the code of life. Her passion for science kept her pushing the boundaries for women and paving the way for other women in science. Basically, she was that girl.
Some days, being a woman in STEM feels like running an endless experiment full of trial, error, and a lot of “what am I even doing?” moments. But then I think about Rosalind Franklin working quietly, fiercely, and changing the course of science without getting the credit she deserved, and suddenly the hard days don’t feel so heavy.
Women like her didn’t just open the door for us; they blew it off its hinges. So even when I’m buried in data or doubting myself, I remember that I’m part of something bigger, a legacy of women who refused to shrink themselves.
And that’s what keeps me showing up, pipette in hand, ready to make my mark.