Becca Anderson (author of The Book of Awesome Women) praises the feminist and philanthropist Beyonce Knowles-Carter for her remarkable work.
Born in 1981 in Houston, Texas, in 1990 Beyonce joined the all-girl R&B group Girl’s Tyme, which after a few false starts under various names became Destiny’s Child in 1996. After success with several chart-topping Destiny’s Child singles, she recorded a solo album released in 2003 and has never looked back. She married hip hop artist Jay-Z in 2008; they later had a daughter named
Blue Ivy, and as of 2017, they are currently expecting twins. She has performed twice at the Super Bowl and sang the national anthem at President Obama’s second inauguration. In a 2013 interview with Vogue, Beyonce said that she thought of herself as “a modern-day feminist”. She also sampled “We should all be feminists” from a TEDx talk in 2013 by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her song “Flawless” of that year, although she has critics who feel her racy performances are not supportive of women’s empowerment.
Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Beyonce and her husband have donated millions to it, as well as contributing to the Ban Bossy campaign, which seeks to encourage leadership in girls via social and other media. She has also included the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner in the video for the song “Freedom” holding pictures of their unjustly murdered sons. In April 2016 Beyonce released a visual album called Lemonade as an HBO special. In it, she showed the strength found in communities of African-American women as well as in women as a whole. Lemonade debuted at number one, making Beyonce the only artist in history to have all of her first six studio albums reach the top of Billboard’s album charts.
This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.
The Book of Awesome Women
Boundary Breakers, Freedom Fighters, Sheroes & Female Firsts
Super women as female role models. From the foremothers who blazed trails and broke barriers, to today’s women warriors from sports, science, cyberspace, city hall, the lecture hall, and the silver screen, The Book of Awesome Women paints 200 portraits of powerful and inspiring role models for women and girls poised to become super women of the future. Discover some of the most awesome women known to history while celebrating the greatness of females all over!