Kellie Gerardi took friendship bracelets farther than any other person on the planet: to space.
“I was the 90th woman ever to go to space,” she said in a FaceTime call of the trip she took earlier this month, “and so this is still quite new terrain. But that was also another point of why I didn’t want to tone it down.”
The Virgin Galactic astronaut conducted three experiments during her two-hour flight. As a mother of a 6-year-old girl, she says it’s important for girls, especially, to see that you can like science and sparkle.
“I’ve always been really conscious of being a woman in STEM,” she says. “All of the things that I love that are the essence of some of the girlhood things that I celebrate are compatible with space with science with STEM and I wanted her to know these things aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Gerardi, who traded friendship bracelets with her friends this year, said the bracelets were inspired by Taylor Swift and the Eras tour. She even brought one to space that she hopes to give to Swift.
“You’re changing the world,” she said of the singer. “We’re in an era of women who are breaking barriers. She’s always been an inspiration.”
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