I'm a Scientist Too

So this is something I've managed to avoid or at least delay for the last three or so years. Now that I'm a month into my honours and have technically finishing my undergrad degree it's time to face facts: I'm a scientist. It's something that I've only ever mentioned in passing, or heavily down played under some kind of false modesty because saying it out loud on the Internet is an incredibly scary thing. I felt taking pride in my achievements would make me some kind of bad person, but I should be proud that I have a BSc with a double major in geology and a double minor in biology. I suppose I was reluctant to address this at the end of last year while I waited to receive the news on whether I had been accepted into honours. I've always kept quiet about this because I felt concerned that this would somehow make my opinions about fashion less valid. The other scenario is that researchers would find my fashion blog and that my academic work would be taken less seriously. The worst scenario is that I would be forced out of science on the basis that I like clothing. It's taken me a very long time but I've finally realised that one shouldn't detract from the other and anyone who thinks so is not worth my time. Unfortunately the fact remains that some very influential people within science may object to how I dress.


My project is on palaeontology and focuses on the analysis and identification of organic inclusions in amber from south-eastern Australia. Basically I'm looking for plant material as well as any insects and other invertebrates. I'd like to think that I'm doing work related to Jurassic Park, but without the cloning and addition of frog DNA (plus genetic material has a half-life on the scale of thousands of years rather than millions of years but whatever). So far it's been a lot of work but I've been very lucky to work on a project which I love and am already considering a PhD next year- if I get the grades.

Thank you to Annika Victoria from the Pineneedle Collective for largely inspiring this discussion and giving me the courage to give form to these thoughts. By keeping silent for so long about my involvement in science I was actually contributing to the perpetuation of a stereotype that scientists are always white straight cis men and usually upper or middle class. Dismantling this pre-conceived idea not only helps the next generation of budding scientists, but also helps women already in science (of which, there are few). The women who are in science are typically stereotyped as some kind of hero for balancing their home and work life. This is something I've discussed with a good friend from university and we're both sick and tired of hearing this repeated over and over again. 

*Photos via Rookie Mag: Dinosaur Jr

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