Alt Page 3

So, The Sun newspaper may have finally decided to join the 20th century and change it’s Page 3, but from what I’ve seen on twitter this morning it’s only moved from semi-naked to scantily clad. Hardly a great leap forward, and real waste of an amazing opportunity.

The Sun has the power and reach to showcase (daily!) awesome women doing awesome things.

With two little nieces, I’ve got a vested interest in celebrating positive female role models, and I have to imagine that both The Sun staff and its readers have daughters and nieces in their lives.

Surely they want those kids to aspire to something greater than Page 3 models or pseudo-celebs?

If I were running Page 3, I’d showcase and champion amazing people doing mind-blowing, world-chaging things with their time and energy.  And the great thing is, we’re at no shortage of supply!  We could literally run it for years and years and years.

I could only hope that such a page, call it an Alt Page 3, would inspire people like my nieces to be bold.

So, in no particular order, here’s a few of my nominations for an Alt Page 3 of Awesomeness…

Gale Anne Hurd…

Gale Anne Hurd. She gets to kill zombies…for a living!

She’s a Hollywood producer. She made The Terminator. The freakin’ Terminator. And now she’s making The Walking Dead. She’s the boss…the zombie boss. She deserves a full page in any newspaper for being incredible.

Megan Smith…

Megan Smith CTO of the United States

She’s the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the United States…the whole country! She works in the White House, travels all around the world, and is in charge (!) of making sure the USA stays on top of the technology race.

Holly Smale…

Geek Girl Holly Smale

She’s the author of the Geek Girl books. She makes it cool to be smart. How awesome is that?!

Sarah Kauss…

Sarah Kauss

Sarah went to Harvard Business School and founded a company to turn the boring old water bottle into a desirable fashion accessory…and does a whole lot to help water based charities in parts of the world that badly need water. Awesome!

Annaleise Carr…

Swimmer Annaleise Carr

In 2012, Annaleise became the youngest person to swim across Lake Ontario (which is a really big lake in Canada!)…before she even started in High School. She’s inspired a generation (including my son) to take up swimming and be fit and active.

Mary Barra…

GM CEO Mary Barra

Mary is the CEO of General Motors…the world’s biggest car company. She makes cars…and gets paid a lot of money for doing it. I have to believe every dude who buys The Sun secretly would want to run a car company. And since she’s doing it, maybe their kids (daughters especially) can aspire to something so cool.

Alice Taylor…

Tech toymaker Alice Taylor

Alice is a gamer and entrepreneur. She runs a company called MakieLabs that makes 3D printed toys for kids. It’s a tech-enabled toy company. Remember Tom Hanks in Big…every kid’s fantasy to run a toy company.  Well she gets to do it. For real!

Lucy Anne Holmes…

Lucy-Anne Holmes

Lucy is the activist who led and galvanised the “No More Page 3” campaign. How great would it be if she were featured and celebrated as an inspirational woman in the very paper she sought to influence?  Awesomely great, of course.

I think it’s high time we celebrate excellence, ambition, and achievement…and with it’s massive readership, The Sun newspaper is in the perfect place to inspire.

This is just a top of mind initial list. Who else should be celebrated with a full page of newspaper real estate?  Lemme know, or maybe tweet it out with hashtag #AltPage3.