Getting more girls into STEM isn't rocket science - you just need to fire up their imaginations. That's the mission behind American Girl's new 2018 Girl of the Year, Luciana Vega, who wants to be the first person on Mars. The Mattel-owned toymaker debuted the aspiring astronaut doll on ''Good Morning America'' last week before a group of girls dressed in official NASA flight suits. American Girl teamed up with an out-of-this-word advisory board, including NASA's former chief scientists Dr. Ellen Stofan and NASA astronaut Dr. Megan McArthur Behnken, to make their first STEM-themed character's story and product line as accurate as possible. Luciana is an 11-year-old who wins a scholarship to attend Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. So American Girl editors and product designers visited Space Camp and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to see a day in the life of a trainee, such as putting on space suits and learning the ''right'' way to eat in space, or conducting a mission in microgravity.

The year 2017 put gender bias in focus again. Firms must study the numbers if they want to thrive, writes entrepreneur and author Sarah Lacy. In this extract from her new book, Lacy makes the case that hiring women isn't just the right thing to do - it makes business sense too.