Amelia Earhart helped women to be brave and try things they were interested in.

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean and did many other great

things. She never stopped trying to set records for flying. Her life is part of history.

On July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, Amelia Earhart was born at her grandmother’s

house. Her mother and father were Amelia O. and Samuel Earhart and had a sister named

Grace. Amelia’s house had a maid and cook. Her dad had a hard time keeping a job so they

never had money. Her parents had a hard time staying together. They split up when she was a

teenager so, Earhart’s mother took the girls to Chicago. Amelia was a good student, and she

was hoping to go to a good college, but she didn’t have enough money. Her mom sent her to a

private school for girls.

When she was 23, she was with her dad at an airshow. At the airshow, she was amazed

by the tricks that they did. She wanted to know, how much did it cost to learn to fly. Her dad

took her to the Rogers Field to ride an airplane. She got to sit in the back of an airplane, while

the pilot flew her around. Right then and there, she wanted to learn to fly planes. She wanted

Neta Snook to teach her how to fly. Amelia was willing to pay for the flying lessons. Neta agreed

to teach Amelia and it only took Amelia a year of lessons to get her license.

Amelia flew in some airshows with her new license. Most pilots were men, so Amelia

was shocking to a lot of people. She wanted to fly in the airshows for money. Neta got married,

and that meant that Amelia had to find a new teacher. She got a new teacher named Monte

Montijo. He had flown in the army. Amelia wanted to set a record and go 14,00 feet into the

air. It took her two tries, but finally, she did it. She got the chance to fly across the Atlantic
Ocean as a passenger for Wilmer Stultz. They made the trip and Amelia became the first

woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane and became a famous.

Many things changed with airplanes and flying after Amelia got her license. In 1931

there were more than 450 female pilots and airplanes where much better. Amelia wanted to

set another record. On May 20, 1932 for the anniversary of Lindbergh’s famous flight she took

off to try and be the first woman to make it across the Atlantic by herself. The flight was very

hard for Amelia. After many hours of flying she landed in Ireland. She became the first woman

to fly a plane across the Atlantic.

Amelia still wanted to do more amazing things with flying. Many other pilots had

already flown around the world but she wanted to fly close to the equator. It was going to be a

29,000-mile flight. She got a special plane called the Electra that had extra gas tanks for a

longer trip and new radio equipment. She took off from California on March 17, 1937 and

headed towards Hawaii. She had a few problems with her plane starting off. Amelia made it

almost all the way around the world and then got lost. The people talking with her on the radio

all of a sudden couldn’t hear her. The United States looked for her but couldn’t find her.

Amelia Earhart was not just a great pilot. She was a hero to a lot of people. Women

looked up to her and she shocked some men. The story about her life is still very popular and

people still see her as a hero. Today people are still searching for answers of where she is and

what happened to her body and her plane.