Scientists’ Biographies May Discourage, Not Inspire, Kids’ Interest In Science

Study: Popular Kids’ Science Books May Send the Wrong Message About Talent

A biography of Ada Lovelace describes the English mathematician filling her journal with equations at age 3, nothing like the life of an actual 3-year-old, who is busy coloring and counting blocks. Jessica Gladstone, an educational psychology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, uses that example to make a point: “Children are coloring and learning about numbers at age 3. They are not doing what Ada Lovelace was allegedly doing, but that doesn’t mean they can’t become excellent scientists.”

Gladstone led a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzing 422 best-selling children’s books, featuring 1,355 portrayals of 655 individual scientists. The team found a pattern in how these stories describe talent and hard work that does not always line up with what actually keeps kids motivated. “The books often portray scientists and their paths to success in ways that risk alienating young readers, particularly girls, racial/ethnic minority children and those who do not view themselves as interested in science,” Gladstone said.

Science biographies for kids are everywhere, with Amazon alone listing over 10,000 of them. Andrei Cimpian, a psychology professor at New York University and co-author of the study, said that popularity is exactly why the messaging matters. “Biographies of scientists are an enormously popular genre. Millions of children are reading these books or having them read to them,” Cimpian said. “They’re typically written to inspire, but what counts as inspirational has been left up to each author’s intuitions.”

Bestseller Status Doesn’t Guarantee a Healthy Message

Researchers sampled the 500 best-selling children’s science biographies on Amazon, ending up with 422 books. Roughly 60% of scientists portrayed were male, three-quarters were White, and about half worked in physics, engineering, or computer science. Two researchers independently rated each book, scoring how strongly it portrayed a scientist’s ability and interest as fixed, meaning something they were born with, or capable of growing over time, and tracked how often books emphasized hard work. Agreement between the raters was strong, meaning the scores were consistent and reliable.

Ability Is a Toss-Up, Interest Is Fixed From Birth

On scientific ability, the books were split almost evenly, about as likely to call a scientist naturally gifted as to say skills developed through practice. Researchers note that mixed messages like these are unlikely to motivate kids, since the “natural talent” framing tends to stick even when paired with a growth message.

Interest, meanwhile, was portrayed as overwhelmingly fixed, with most scientists described as drawn to science from a very young age, as if their passion arrived fully formed. Kids who haven’t yet developed a strong connection to science may assume they’ve already missed the window, that science just isn’t “for them” the way it was for these famous figures from birth.

Physics Books Lean Harder Into “Natural Talent”

Not all fields were treated equally. Books about scientists in physics, engineering, and computer science were significantly more likely to describe success as fixed, inborn talent than books about scientists in biology or environmental science. “Physics, engineering and computer science are some of the fields where people tend to believe that in order to be successful, you must have an innate talent,” Gladstone said, “and that’s actually what we found reflected in these children’s stories.”

That matters because those fields already have some of the largest gaps in representation by gender and race. Such framing, Gladstone said, “may be demotivating for some students” and could “reinforce the very inequities that we are trying to combat.”

Women Get Credited for Effort, Not Talent

Perhaps the most telling finding involves books about female scientists, substantially more likely to emphasize effort and hard work as the key to success than books about male scientists.

But researchers point out that science culture often places a special premium on effortless talent. Framing a woman’s success as the product of grinding effort implies her accomplishments came at a higher cost than a man’s would, echoing a pattern in which women’s achievements get chalked up to effort while men’s get credited to raw talent.

To check whether this simply reflected greater barriers faced by female scientists, researchers accounted for setbacks like failed experiments, unsupportive families, and discrimination. The effort gap held up regardless, even after adjusting for the gender of the books’ authors.

A Truer Story, Not a New One

None of this means parents should toss these books, or that authors set out to discourage kids. These are well-meaning books meant to broaden children’s ideas about who scientists can be, but good intentions and good outcomes aren’t the same thing.

Gladstone points to a biography of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson mentioning his early interests in ballet and boxing before he found his way to science, showing a scientist who grew into an interest rather than one born loving it. This study suggests authors often favor a different narrative instead: early-blooming interest, fixed talent in some fields, and an outsized emphasis on effort for women.

“Motivation science would say that the scientists should be described in ways that feel relatable to kids, in ways that make their achievements feel like others can reach that level of success,” Gladstone said. Books should frame success around the idea that ability can be built through practice, she added, and that failure is a normal part of learning.

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Disclaimer: This article summarizes findings from a peer-reviewed study and is intended for general informational purposes. It is not a substitute for guidance from an educator, librarian, or child development professional in selecting reading material for a specific child.

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