“Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.” These words came from Amelia Earhart, a woman who would fail at something, but would never give up no matter what was in the way. Amelia Earhart risked everything for aviation, her destiny in life. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart grew up in a society where women stayed at home doing chores and men were the center of attention. Amelia, however, wanted to challenge the stereotypical role of women. Still, even after her mysterious death, she continues to inspire so many women across the world. Earhart’s accomplishments, passion for aviation, and determination made her one of the most remembered women in history.

Amelia’s childhood played a big part in her life, it taught her many lessons about what would come in the future. The oldest of two girls, Amelia Mary Earhart was born July 24, 1897, Atchison. She was of a wealthy family, especially her grandparents. Her childhood was filled with beautiful memories that she would remember long after her teenage years. Since her parents were frequently fighting and divorcing , she had to stay with her grandparents most of the year. In her grandparent’s house, Amelia felt joyful and creative along with her younger sister. There, they were always sent to private schools which they had learned many things in. Stated from Amelia herself, “Like many horrid children I loved school, though I never qualified as teacher's pet. Perhaps the fact that I was exceedingly fond of reading made me endurable. With a large library to browse in, I spent many hours not bothering anyone after I once learned to read.” In school, Amelia wasn’t the very favorite student of the teachers, but she did learn many things. Reading was her strength in school and at home, which she practiced many hours until she finally learned to read. Even though she was a very smart girl, she was never popular or social with anyone from her school. Every since Amelia was a little girl, she wasn’t a very “good girl”. She loved adventures, and sports at school. Her life was filled with imagination, and her father’s travels taught her much about the world. Amelia showed an interest in engineering and her father’s work from a young age. Amelia never exactly liked flying until her adult years, as proved by Amelia herself when she was younger,”It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not all that interesting.” A decade later, she wanted to take flying lessons, but her father had been very busy with work and trouble was going on. Amelia had to work very hard to pay for the flying lessons and eventually bought her own plane six months later. Those years were very hard on the family when Amelia’s maternal grandmother died in 1911, leaving Amelia all alone with her mother and sister. Earhart’s father started to rehabilitate himself in a sanatorium because of his alcoholism. After her parents divorce, Amelia was forced to sell her plane for a car to take her mother to Chicago where her and Muriel lived. Amelia worked many part time jobs to support her mother. In addition, she didn’t have time to fly or buy a new plane. Amelia started to attend Hyde Park high school and her grades in science were excellent because Amelia knew that Hyde Park had the best science program in the area. Once, in her graduation photo, Amelia was very proud of herself until she got bullied in her class photo. When she looked at the photo, she saw at the bottom, “A.E. - the girl in brown who walks alone.” Amelia knew she didn’t need friends to move on and become successful, but she would have been very lonely without her sister Muriel. Later, Amelia excels in her studies at a different school and becomes vice president of her class, but doesn’t graduate. Instead, Amelia volunteered at Toronto’s Spadina Military Hospital where she became a nurse for the wounded soldiers in World War 1. After experiencing her first flight in Toronto, Amelia was left with bruises and pain but it made her realize her dream career. Amelia didn’t realize that her life would change and that she would encounter her destiny, to fly.

Even though Earhart was a flying legend across the world, she also had obstacles in her life that she had to encounter and stopped her at one point from following her dreams. One of the main obstacles that Earhart encountered in her life was not having enough money. When she wanted to fly, she had to take flying lessons, but her family didn’t have sufficient money. She worked very hard everyday to earn money for flying lessons. This hard work involved many part time jobs and a lot of patience. Even though it took a lot of time to get the money, Earhart paid the flying lessons. She didn’t let money get in the way of her dream which was to fly. Money wasn’t the only obstacle Amelia had over the years, she was also discriminated for being a woman. In those times if you were a woman, it meant you needed to do house chores and care for the children. Amelia had to suffer through this discrimination because she was a woman all her life in a men’s society. Not many women were pilots back then, she even had to fight for women to become pilots in the first place. After becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic ocean as a passenger, Amelia was the center of attention. This changed the way men viewed women, not completely but she did inspire women to do the same. Since she was a little girl Amelia was always in a society where women would stay home while their husbands worked. Amelia found this unfair since women could do anything men could. She made this obstacle into an achievement by inspiring women to do what they want in life. She is one of those women in history who never give up on their dreams and are proud to be the women they are even though these obstacles stopped her in some way.

As a pilot, Amelia wanted to feel proud of herself for achieving many goals in life, many which changed her life and benefited her. One of these life changing achievements was being the first woman to fly over the Atlantic ocean. This is a huge accomplishment, people would immediately look at her in admiration because back then it was very rare to see a woman fly a plane. Before this, another accomplishment was getting a pilot license. Without this licence none of her accomplishments would have become real. This license was also very hard to get, since men were the usual pilots back then. Amelia trained really hard, and fought for women for that license. The license was worth the training because Amelia experienced the rides of her life in her plane which made her accomplish something big. Another accomplishment Amelia made was breaking the women’s altitude record. She went up 14,000 on her plane, gave it all she got and soon was rewarded for this outstanding performance she gave the audience. This accomplishment was probably one of the starting points for Amelia, it gave her hope of becoming a pilot and achieving what she wanted. Amelia experienced life changing moments in her life which helped her achieve success in everything she did, and fought her what she wanted most.

Amelia was a huge impact on society, especially on women rights. Her flying taught many others that no matter if you get discriminated for your gender, you you need to fight for what you want. Even after her mysterious death on July 2nd, 1937, enroute from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, she is still an inspirational figure and of course a leader. When men thought women could never accomplish anything they could, Amelia proved them wrong because she knew she could. Even though she was a woman, look how far Amelia had gone. Her amazing flying and accomplishments made her a famous leader of all women, and even men. Earhart still inspires people across the world because of her struggles in fighting discrimination against women pilots in a men’s society.