Amelia Mary Earhart was born in
Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897.She was a very adventurous
girl. Once she built a ramp from the roof to the ground.
Then, she made a cart and rode down the ramp like she was on
a roller coaster. During the winter Amelia would ride her
sled and hunt rats with a .22 rifle. Once a sleigh was
coming down the road right in front of Amelia and her sled.
She didn't panic; she aimed right between the horse's legs.
It worked, and she didn't have a scratch on her. Amelia's
father was a lawyer who traveled a lot, and her mother
always went with him. Amelia and her younger sister, Muriel,
lived with their prominent grandparents on Quality Hill in
Atchison when their parents were traveling. Amelia didn't
like it very much though. Their grandmother believed that
young girls should play inside and act like ladies. She said
too much running around would kill her wonderful
granddaughter that she loved so. Amelia liked to play outside, climb
trees and explore. Amelia was just like her mother. Amy
Earhart was the first woman to climb Pike's Peak in
Colorado. On Amelia's eleventh birthday her father took her
to the fair to see an airplane fly. But to her surprise she
wasn't very impressed, all it was, was a metal frame and
some wood. Amelia started studying for a good career at an
early age. Most other girls just thought about getting
married and having children but Amelia wanted more than
that, she wanted to be famous. Pilot Frank Hawks took Amelia up in
his airplane on December 28, 1920. From that day on she knew
she wanted to be a pilot. She began flying lessons with Neta
Snook on January 3, 1921. She got her pilots license in the
summer of 1922. Amelia had many firsts in flying and broke
many records over the next fifteen years. She changed
society's ideas about women and aviation. She challenged
women to try to do whatever it was that they wanted to do
and when they fail their failure must be a challenge to
others.
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