Mary Shelley was 18 when she founded a new literary genre with the first-ever science fiction novel, "Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus." Her father described her as "singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind...her perseverance in everything she undertakes almost invincible." 12/🧵

Nine months before Rosa Parks, 15-year-old civil rights activist Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the city bus. When she was 17, she testified in the Browder v. Gayle case that would go all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled bus segregation unconstitutional 11/🧵

Freddie & Truus Oversteegen (1940s) were 14 & 16 when they joined the Haarlem resistance against the Nazis. Disguised as nurses, they did drive-by shootings in broad daylight, gunning down Nazis in the street. They also blew up railway lines and housed Jewish refugees. Both lived to age 92. 10/🧵

Adea Eurydice (4th C BCE), a trained warrior who at fifteen made strategic moves to set herself up as the successor of Alexander the Great, mainly by marrying his brother, and soon after raised an army against Alexander’s mother and widow for control of the Macedonian Empire 9/🧵

Mary Bowser (b. 1846), who as a child escaped slavery in the south. When the Civil War broke out, at 15 years old she returned to the south as a Union spy to pose as an illiterate slave, infiltrate the confederate capitol, and secretly memorize confederate documents. 8/🧵

Hatshepsut (15th C BCE), who at sixteen successfully manipulated religious and royal tradition to remain in power despite a successor. She epitomized “fake it till you make it” and acted as pharaoh, complete with donning the pharaonic headdress and beard, until she was treated as such 7/🧵

Arwa al-Sulayhi (11th C), Yemeni princess who at 18 became the first Queen of the Muslim world to rule in her own right. She established a new capital, commissioned a new golden age of arts and culture, and led armies to crush her rivals. 6/🧵

Arsinoë IV (1st C BCE), who at ~14 led an army and laid siege to Alexandria against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, her big sister. Her successes led to Rome sending reinforcements that eventually succeeeded, ending the Ptolemaic Dynasty and establishing Hellenistic Egypt 5/🧵

Börte Üjin (12th C) who at 18 escaped captivity and established the Mongol Empire with her husband, Temüjin. She set the model of Mongol rule that established women as rulers of kingdoms while men went to battle. She advised her husband on strategy, who later became known as Genghis Khan 4/🧵

Shajara al-Durr (13th C), a captive who raised an army of conscripted slaves to overthrow the king and establish the Mamluk Dynasty, herself becoming the first and only female ruler of Islamic Egypt. She also led her army to defeat an onslaught of French crusaders and captured King Louis IX 3/🧵

Zazil-Ha (16th C), Mayan noble who campaigned across the the Yucatán Peninsula to unite against the Spanish invaders led by Hernan Cortes. She adopted Spanish battle strategies and successfully repelled their attacks for more than 20 years. Her bravery saved her people for a generation. 2/🧵