Unstoppable Women Series
Luja Mathema
Illustrations by Prakash Ranjit
Language: English & Nepali
Publisher: Nepa~laya
Published: 2024
Pages: Four books, around 30 pages each, Hardcover
Written by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, there’s a book (that can double as a great coffee table book) called ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’ that features short stories about 100 real inspiring women who can be role models to children. It was published in 2016 and aimed at children six and up. Since then, it has sold over one million copies and been translated into more than 47 languages.
The book has full-page illustrations of women like Ada Lovelace, Frida Kahlo, Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Judy Blume etc. followed by their stories. It makes for a great book to read during bedtime or when you just want a bite-sized read. Though a fabulous book, there is a lack of representation since the book is primarily meant for a Western audience. There isn’t a single story about a Nepali woman in the two book series. But Nepa~laya’s ‘Unstoppable Women Series’, a collection of four books about various Nepali women bridges that gap.
Featuring Ambika Shrestha, Ani Choying Drolma, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, and Sapana Pradhan Malla, the series is a brilliant collection of stories of women who have excelled in their respective fields. Unlike Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, where each woman is confined to two pages, in the Unstoppable Women Series the four featured women all get their own beautifully illustrated books. Each hardcover book is about 30 pages long and the stories are narrated in both English and Nepali.
The perfectly bound slim volumes take you on a journey through these amazing women’s lives, inspiring you to look at life a little differently. Tourism entrepreneur Ambika Shrestha’s life, from Sikkim, India to Nepal, is testimony of the powers of hard work and discipline. Buddhist nun and singer Ani Choying Drolma’s story speaks of the value of pursuing your life’s calling. Similarly, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to climb Mt. Everest, teaches you how grit and resilience can help you achieve the impossible. Sapana Pradhan Malla, a judge in the Nepali Supreme Court, is an advocate for equality. I made a friend’s daughter read her story and she told me she wants to be like Malla when she grows up. When I asked her what she meant by that, she said she wants to speak her mind and call out all the wrong things in our society.
All the four books, despite being short, make you want to take your time with them. You will pause to look at the illustrations and when you finish one book, you don’t immediately want to jump onto the next, pausing instead to think about these women’s lives and compare and contrast your own or the lives of women you know with theirs. You realize how women in Nepal have been bound by societal expectations and challenges and yet continue to strive to forge their own paths. It makes you value them more and consider how things could be different, if society was as accepting of them as it is of men.
All in all, the Unstoppable Women Series is a great collection to read with your children, or by yourself. It’s not just books for girls and women but for boys and men as well, as there are lots of life lessons to learn from these fabulous women who have braved a lot in life to change the world around them and make a name for themselves.
