It’s not news that there’s a major power imbalance between men and women. While there’s been a wide range of efforts to tackle the imbalance, inequality persists. As an organization that champions the voices and ambitions of the next generation of female leaders, Daughters of the Evolution tasked us with finding a solution that sits right where the imbalance begins: with adolescents, whose identities are just starting to take shape as they learn about the world in school. During our research we found that women are underrepresented in curricula; less than 11 percent of stories in US History textbooks are devoted to women, which means children aren’t seeing the full picture of what’s possible. It became our objective to illuminate the stories of women in history. But one major constraint is that we would have to convince textbook companies to rewrite, reprint and redistribute textbooks across America. We needed a creative solution that could bring our objective to life without physically changing textbooks.

The United States is built upon the notion of freedom and equality, yet gender inequality remains. Women hit career glass ceilings. They make less money than men. No national holidays are named after women. The US has never even seen a woman president. Ad infinitum. The imbalance touches every industry and facet of society, reinforcing it as status quo and normal. Children ultimately grow up in a world dominated by men and replicate that dynamic in their behavior. Fortunately, we’re starting to see the beginnings of a massive cultural shift. The Women’s March on Washington in 2017 (the largest single-day demonstration in US history) and the rise of the #MeToo movement are just two examples that speak to this shift. Enter Lessons in Herstory, which empowers children with the knowledge that women have contributed to society too, so that the next generation grows up seeing a more balanced narrative. It’s a way to change the gender power imbalance in society that gets to the root of the problem: how we’re conditioned as kids. In a broken system that’s ripe for change, Lessons in Herstory empowers the next generation to bring about that societal change.

With the power of augmented reality, we were able to rewrite one of the most popular US History textbooks without changing the textbook at all. With the Lessons in Herstory app, students are able to scan any photo of any man in their textbook and unlock a related story about a forgotten woman in history. For example, when a student scans a photo of Abraham Lincoln, they’ll unlock a story about Rebecca Pomroy, a remarkable woman who is almost always left out of Lincoln’s narrative, despite the fact that she played a major role in his success. In order to bring these stories of powerful women to life, we decided to use colorful illustrations and engaging animations—a stark juxtaposition to the outdated textbooks that have failed to change throughout the years.

We unearthed the troubling data that less than 11 percent of the stories in US History textbooks are about women. The consequences of that gender-representation imbalance are severe. A Rutgers University study put it well: “When girls do not see themselves in the pages of textbooks, our daughters learn that to be female is to be an absent partner in the development of our nation.” This is particularly crucial for adolescents, who, psychoanalysts claim, are at the most vulnerable stage of identity formation as they eagerly look up to heroes and mentors in the world to model themselves after. This brought us to our insight—“you can’t be what you can’t see”—as well as our target audience—middle-schoolers. The strategy was to illuminate stories of powerful women so that adolescents could see a diverse range of heroes to be empowered by.

With the expertise of New York Times Bestseller and Feminist Historian, Kate Schatz, we were able to expand history and reveal empowering perspectives that were previously not in textbooks. To put the app out into the world, we launched Lessons in Herstory in the US during Women’s History Month, a time dedicated to celebrating the contributions of women, and when the nation’s attention is on the gender imbalance issue in history. To reach our target audience, we placed Herstory in middle schools for teachers to begin incorporating into their history curriculum. The app was programmed to recognize the portraits of men in one of the most popular US history textbooks. The best part? The app has the capability to be integrated with any textbook, reaching a potential audience of 59 million students in the US.

Within its first month, Lessons in Herstory earned 88 million impressions and over 110,000 downloads. It’s also already been adopted in schools and implemented into curricula across seven US states. History institutions in the US have approached us for partnership, and we are currently in talks with the Smithsonian Museum about launching a Smithsonian edition of the app. We’ve successfully reached and empowered students across the country, and have forged important connections for Lessons in Herstory to enable it to grow and reach many more. We’ve even gotten the attention of notable global organizations, such as UN Women and the World Economic Forum, and have been invited to speak at the Global Summit of Women in Switzerland—increasing our reach from national to global, and amplifying our ability to move the conversation around gender equality.