Each year the MacArthur "Genius Grant" - a k a a cool $625,000 stipend doled out over five years - is awarded to 24 super talented individuals by the
MacArthur Foundation, and this year included nine women rockstars in a range of different fields,
as first spotted on Jezebel. If you're still asking yourself, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" then let these rad ladies be the answer.
"We try to reach people who have shown evidence of exceptional creativity but show the potential for more in the future," the foundation's managing director
Cecilia Conrad told The New York Times, "to give individuals the freedom to take some risks, to enable them to do new and exciting things."
The Neuroscientist
Beth Stevens, 45, is a brilliant member of F. M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Neurology, and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.
The Dancer
Michelle Dorrance is a 36-year-old tap dancer and choreographer, and the founder and artistic director of
Dorrance Dance/New York, where she puts on groundbreaking performances using the historic dance style.
The Historian
Marina Rustow, 46, is a Princeton professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Department of History who is making new discoveries about Jewish life and the Middle East in medieval times.
The Set Designer
Mimi Lien is 39 years old and has designed evocative "environments," as she calls them, for theatre, dance and opera worldwide.
The Photographer
LaToya Ruby Frazier, a 33-year-old photographer and video artist, is also an assistant photography professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and explores social inequality through her work.
The Poet
Ellen Bryant Voigt, 72, is a Vermont-based poet who "captures something of the world and the human experience of living in the world, which is fraught, it's challenging, it's complicated," Voigt says in her video.
The Artist
Nicole Eisenman, 50, uses paint, sculpture, drawing and printmaking to explore social issues through the human form.
The Economist
Heidi Williams is a 34-year-old assistant professor of economics at MIT researching health care markets.
The Adaptive Designer
Alex Truesdell, the 59-year-old founder and executive director of the Adaptive Design Association, which designs tools and furniture for children with disabilities.
These women are really showing that the world is #BuiltByGirls. How will you become a part of the conversation?