Are you wondering how to celebrate International Women’s Day and advance the causes of women in general? Well, it might be a good idea to take a look at the gender breakdown of who you follow online.
Websites like this one let you see how many women you’re following just by entering your handle.
If your ratio is looking a little lady-light, have a ponder through this list of kick-ass women to follow online, whether you want critical insight, pop culture by the bucket load, or just a bit of a laugh.
Beth McColl
woman: [makes joke]man: okay you do realise this is INCORRECT? let me explain
— beth mccoll (@imteddybless) February 10, 2018
Beth has an advice column too and is currently writing a book, How To Come Alive Again, about coping with mental health issues.
“mental illness is all in your head!!” umm ya sweatie where else would i keep it xoxo
— beth mccoll (@imteddybless) February 3, 2018
If all the funny tweeters you follow are of the distinctly male variety, give Beth a follow. Her tweets go viral on the regular for a reason.
Jenn Schiffer
i just keep getting hotter and smarter
— glennifer jennzig (@jennschiffer) March 13, 2016
Jenn is a digital artist, app developer and generally a coding aficionado.
She writes tech satire and created the website make8bitart.com, an open source tool where you can draw and save your own pixel art.
She’s worth a follow for the lowdown on the latest apps and online art made by small-time creators, like this adorable egg timer, this extremely fun pixel GIF text generator, and this illustrated word game.
remember that there were only two female software engineers before 2017: grace hopper and ada lovelace
— glennifer jennzig (@jennschiffer) November 5, 2017
Kimberly Rose Drew
a hill i’m willing to die on: if the artwork is safe. let the people take their art selfies.
— kimberly rose drew (@museummammy) January 19, 2018
if you get yourself into a museum and feel confident enough to take an image of yourself there. we’re doing our jobs right.
— kimberly rose drew (@museummammy) January 19, 2018
Kimberly is the social media manager of the Met Museum in New York, and she writes and tweets on art, activism and race.
My heart cries every time a teacher tells their students they have to be quiet in a Museum.
— kimberly rose drew (@museummammy) January 31, 2018
She doesn’t tweet much so won’t spam up your feed, but if you want an artistic injection, or to learn more about museums and black history, check her out.
Ashley C Ford
Ashley is a writer, podcast host, and general fount of knowledge.
One of her tweets, urging people to donate to pay off children’s school lunch bills, set in motion campaigns across the US which raised more than 100,000 dollars to cover youngsters’ outstanding lunch payments.
A cool thing you can do today is try to find out which of your local schools have kids with overdue lunch accounts and pay them off.
— Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) December 6, 2016
She writes on a number of topics – race, relationships, pop culture – but is also adept at creating tweet threads which grab readers’ attention.
As well serious threads on things like money and consent, and she also finds time to retweet cute animals, memes and dole out good advice.
Keah Brown
Keah is a writer, journalist and activist, and created the hashtag #disabledandcute.
Disability is not a thing to overcome. It is a thing that forces us to adapt to an inaccessible world.
— Keah Brown (@Keah_Maria) February 19, 2018
When you say that we did something despite disability you’re effectively erasing a part of us that isn’t wrong or something to dismiss.
— Keah Brown (@Keah_Maria) February 19, 2018
She tweets about culture, her activism, general affirmations and updates on how her debut book of essays, The Pretty One, is doing.
Megan Jayne Crabbe
For anyone reflecting on their year and feeling like a failure for not doing enough:
– whatever you did this year is enough
– their achievements don't make yours any less important
– your value is not measured by your productivity
– it's okay if all you did is survive
— Megan 🐼 (@bodyposipanda_) December 30, 2017
Megan is a body positive activist, author, and prolific Instagrammer.
She’s always tweeting affirmations, as well as nuanced take-downs of the diet industry and fatphobia.
Dear teenagers,
Your body is not a problem. You do not have to spend your summer counting and weighing instead of growing and living. Go collect memories, not points.#WakeUpWeightWatchers
— Megan 🐼 (@bodyposipanda_) February 13, 2018
As well as longer posts on her Instagram about her own struggles with anorexia, she highlights other people in the body positive space, so is a great source for new follows.