Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24th, 1897, in the town of Atchison, Kansas. Earhart was not a normal girl growing up; she liked to do many different things that were not typical for a young girl to do. She liked to collect different animals, hunt rats with a .22 rifle that she learned how to shoot, and play football and baseball. Earhart was a good student in school, but after she graduated, she didn't know exactly what she wanted to do. She tried many occupations, she was once trained to become a mechanic, then she was a nurse's aide for wounded soldiers, and she also went back to school for a career in medicine,[ CITATION Bio l 1033 ]. She finally found her calling when she took her first plane ride in 1920. "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I had to fly." Said Amelia Earhart. Soon after, Earhart and her mother began saving money for Amelia's lessons with Neta Snook. With the same money, Earhart bought her first plane, in 1921, which was a Kinner Airstar,[ CITATION Ame13 l 1033 ]. In 1923 Earhart became the 16th woman to receive her pilot's license, which was a huge accomplishment[ CITATION PBS13 l 1033 ].
Amelia Earhart was a very driven woman, and her passion for aviation was evident in her many achievements. In late 1922 Earhart set a new record in the category of Women's Altitude as she rose over 1400 ft.[ CITATION Kei01 l 1033 ]. Six years later, Amelia became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Although she was just a passenger in the trip, her experience was so positive that a year later in 1929, she wrote her first book about it, 20 Hours, 40Min: Our Flight in the Friendship,[ CITATION Ame13 l 1033 ]. The same year Earhart went on to help form Ninety- Nines Inc., a women's aviation club named after the amount of women who joined. Earhart's perseverance continued to show throughout the 1930's as well. She started the decade by setting the women's speed record with a speed of 181.
