I asked strangers to nominate the greatest women ever - their response showed me this

During those dark days of Covid when we were all confined to our homes and missing the joy of the wider community, I wanted to do something positive to cheer myself and others up. So in January 2021, I asked strangers on social media to nominate a woman from history they thought should be better known and celebrated.

It turned into a unique - and quite special - piece of social history research. Within days, I had literally thousands of responses: some from boys and girls wanting to nominate their mum or the auntie who'd brought them up, but many others were incredible lesser-known women from the pages of history. One Italian boy suggested the extraordinary Jewish-Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, a chemistry professor who had been forced from her post by the racist policies of Mussolini's government in the 1930s before managing to escape to America where she became a leading light in the treatment of cerebral palsy. The oldest living Nobel Laureate, she was still lecturing when she died in January 2012 at the age of 103.

Another suggestion came from a young girl in China, who wanted to mark the Chinese poet Ding Ling, who had been purged from the Communist Party in the mid-twentieth century and seen her work banned. A teenager in Cardiff nominated the courageous German campaigner Sophie Scholl, who co-founded the anti-Nazi White Rose group with her brother to stand up against hate and antisemitism and was caught and brutally executed before she turned 21.

Those were the tip of a very large iceberg. Indeed, by the late spring, more than 10,000 people from all over the world had joined the #WomanInHistory campaign and shared the stories of so many incredible women from all eras of history, doing every kind of thing under the sun. It reinforced my belief that most people want to celebrate the best, the bravest, the most astonishing and most selfless of humanity - rather than spend their days trolling those with whom they don't agree.

The experience reminded me it was important to share the good stories, the best of humanity, as an antidote to the endless stream of bad news and cynical attempts to set different groups against one another. Quite simply, the campaign gave me hope. Out of that social media campaign came first a book, then a one-woman stage show that toured the UK in the spring of 2023. And that is where my first book for young adults, Feminist History for Every Day of the Year, comes in.

Because night after night in theatres from Salford to Scarborough, Winchester to Westcliff-on-Sea, after the show - where I brought to life on stage the inspiring stories of women such as Emily Williamson who, with friends, founded the forerunner to the RSPB or the life of the most prolific British striker, footballer Lily Parr - teachers, parents, grandparents, carers and young people themselves would come and talk afterwards and ask if I'd ever considered writing a book for younger readers.

Finally, after two years of research and writing, here it is - a book that puts on the page 366 women, girls and key events from history that have made a difference to the lives of... everybody. Beginning with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, written when she was only a teenager and published anonymously on New Year's Day 1818, there's an entry for each day of the year and essays in between.

It was tough deciding who to include, and who to leave out, but I was helped both by that first social media campaign back in 2021 and my desire to include as many young people, and living role models, as possible.

So, Malala Yousafzai is here on October 9, the day in 2012 a Taliban assassin stormed the bus in Pakistan and shot her for the 'crime' of going to school. Ugandan climate activist and environmental campaigner Vanessa Nakate and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg are here, as is the amazing Paralympian Ellie Simmonds who, in 2009, became the youngest person ever to be awarded an MBE. The extraordinary Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei - the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest - is included, as is the American freedom rider Pauli Murray, who was arrested for challenging the racist Jim Crow laws in America 15 years before Rosa Parks made her Alabama bus protest.

Those who campaigned for women to be allowed to be doctors or lawyers, those who marched for women to have the vote or to be allowed to study on the same terms as their brothers, are here, from Africa to Australia, Scotland to Sri Lanka.

The book is an almanac, something to be dipped into, and it's intended to be the beginning of a conversation about what it means to try to change things for the better, what it means to choose your own path in life, what it means to stand up against things you know to be wrong or unfair.

So far, most readers have gone straight to their birthday to discover their 'birthday twin'! Others look up dates that are significant to them. It doesn't matter.

But why publish this kind of book now? In part, it's because the pressures on young people have never been greater. Essay The Shamers and the Trolls is about the pressures of social media and the digital world which has become a forum for misogyny and bullying, misinformation and hate.

The TV drama Adolescence laid bare the horrifying consequences of unchecked social media and the ways in which young people are manipulated, controlled and undermined by those who are governed only by self-interest and greed.

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a shared narrative - we all sat down to watch the same television programmes, we were brought up by our families and lived within our communities. If we were lucky, our role models were our parents and families, our teachers and club leaders. Now, the pressures on parents, carers and grandparents are growing, because every child has a mini computer in their pocket and can access the very worst sort of misinformation at the click of a button.

Of course, bullying, unkindness and unfairness has always existed - and will always exist - but it is now all-but-impossible for young people to escape it. More than 76% of girls have received unwanted sexual images on their phones. Many say how they feel powerless, how they feel the world is a hostile and broken place, the endless news cycle of genocide, war and natural disasters causes anxiety and instability.

An important reason for publishing now is to tell a different story. In a world that can feel overwhelming, it's important to remember that individual people like us, can make a difference. That our voices matter. The essay She Roars, She Scores! is about the triumphant rise of women's sport and the way the Lionesses brought the country together during the Euros.

Their success has only come about because of campaigning over the past century - ever since the Football Association banned women's football from being played on Premier League club pitches in 1921 (a ban that stayed in place until 1971!)

Little by little, everyone working together has changed the discussion around women's sport for the benefit of players and fans alike. June's essay is Boys Can Be Feminists Too, putting on the page wonderful men and boys throughout history who believe that everyone - whoever they are, whatever they look like - should be treated fairly, that girls should have the same opportunities as boys.

From Andy Murray to Chadwick Boseman and Pierre Curie, all the brothers, cousins, friends, husbands who marched with the suffragettes to demand fairness. These are the male role models we need.

It's true that the world in 2025 is a complicated and challenging place, with global warming and natural disasters, belligerent leaders seeking to provoke wars, the rolling back of equal rights, and the setting of nation against nation. But everywhere are incredible women of science, of politics, of the arts, of social care, of the environment, of sports - all doing astonishing, marvellous, inspiring things. Together, we can roll back the tide. We can choose to celebrate the best in people - women and men - rather than the worst.

My Feminist History for Every Day of the Year is just one contribution amongst many, an antidote to doom-scrolling and despair. It's a reminder that we built this world together and that, together, we are stronger. It's a book about having the courage to stand up for what you believe in - even if others around you don't agree - and for trying to do good in the world.

More than anything, it's a book for young people about the power of hope, of travelling positively, about living one's own precious life to the full. Who will you discover today?

• Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by Kate Mosse (Macmillan, £20) is out now