Barrington High School students publish book to inspire young girls to explore STEM learning

BARRINGTON, Ill. (WLS) -- Three suburban students are working to bridge the gender gap when it comes to STEM learning.

They have written a book to inspire young girls to explore science, technology, engineering and math.

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The book is full of colorful drawings and an engaging story of a young girl who joins the robotics team at her high school, only to discover she is the only girl.

The situation was all too real for Barrington High School students Hafsah Khan and Cindy Wang, two of the three high school student authors. The third student, Sarah Pinto, is already away at college this year.

"We noticed the gender gap where not many girls were on the team," Khan said. "Lots of guys."

So they decided to write a book targeted to young girls in elementary school, encouraging them to pursue their interest in STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.

"We know these gender biases start at a young age so we knew we were targeting it to elementary school students," Wang said.

The girls raised money to self-publish the book, and it's now selling on Amazon in English and Spanish versions and drawing interest from publishing companies.

"We're happy the message is reaching so many people," Khan said.

They've sold lots of copies, including 2,500 to the Barrington school district, which is featuring "Breaking the Code with Gabriella" for its One Book One Community initiative.

"The initiative that these three young people took to help ensure that females were represented in the stem field was an important message that we wanted to bring to the community," said Assistant Superintendent Melissa Byrne PhD.

After distributing the book to students and parents and giving them a chance to read it, the district plans to host the authors at a book chat next month.