Hidden Figures: Young Readers Edition

Margot Lee Shetterly is an American nonfiction writer born in Hampton, Virginia, in 1969. As a child, Shetterly’s father worked as a research scientist at NASA, and Shetterly describes herself as “part of the NASA family” (2). Her father worked alongside Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson, and Shetterly knew them when she was a child. It always seemed very normal to Shetterly that African Americans should be scientists and mathematicians, and she took their presence in her life for granted.

Shetterly graduated from the University of Virginia’s Mintier School of Commerce and moved to New York to work in investment banking. Then, she got married and moved to Mexico with her husband. In Mexico, the couple published an English-language magazine for the expat community and worked for the Mexican tourism industry as editorial consultants. One year, home for Christmas, Shetterly’s father told stories about his days at NASA and the women he worked with. Shetterly’s husband wondered why he hadn’t heard the stories, and Shetterly realized that she didn’t know anything about these women. They had made remarkable contributions and even been a part of Shetterly’s life, but she didn’t know anything about them. In 2010, Shetterly began researching the role of the African American women who worked at NASA, and she published the book Hidden Figures six years later, in 2016.