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Proof that the hardships of being a woman in science follow you everywhere: Went to the Seattle Passport Agency. Stood in a massive line outside the door. Security walks outside and asks if anyone has a “government ID that is PIV’d” - no one moves or speaks... except for me.
“Yes, I do.” Security guard looks at me shocked. “Sorry I don’t think you heard me right. A PIV’d government ID.” I respond with, “yes, I heard you right. I have one.” He asks, “what agency?” I say “NASA.” He doesn’t believe me and proceeds to ask me to take it out and show him
In front of everyone. At this point the entire line is staring at me. He asks what I do and I tell him I’m a research scientist. His response? “You don’t look like a scientist.”
And the most bad ass response from the woman ahead of me: “Yeah, I bet I don’t look like I have a physics degree either.” Stunned silence. Can we fix this please?
I’m getting a lot of incredible responses. I do want to state that the security guard was a nice guy - I don’t think he meant harm by what he was saying, and THAT is the takeaway message. Many individuals don’t realize that “you don’t look like a scientist” is not a compliment.
By no means do I want this man fired - I know where he was coming from when he said it. This issue stems farther than his individual opinion. It’s really about the overall idea that the world thinks this way and not just one person.
And again - his eyes truly lit up when he saw my NASA ID - and that was AMAZING! He was excited to see one in person and I was happy to make him smile. But moving forward, let’s not doubt that the space scientist you might meet in your passing could be a young woman.
Over 100 new followers today?! Oh my gosh! You guys are crazy! Welcome to the space family! I’m currently attending #AAS233 and will be tweeting about the conference talks until the week ends. After that I’ll go back to my regularly scheduled NASA/planet tweets! 
Incredibly humbled by the number of you who have decided to start following my journey as a prospective research space scientist. My tweets might be quiet throughout the shutdown as I won’t be able to be at NASA but I hope all of you stick around for the long haul! 💫
