CNN PRODUCER NOTE     iReporter themathguru aka Vanessa Vakharia has a mission - to make math accessible and attractive to all girls. Based in Toronto, Canada, she has worked with math for years and began noticing discrepancies in how girls percieved maths in comparison to boys. She decided to take action. "I now run a math tutoring studio where I focus largely on changing mathematics culture so that girls (and boys!) can begin to see math as something that can be a part of their lives, rather than something they totally can't relate to," she says. "Without access to education, girls don't have the same career opportunities as boys, and thus realistically don't have access to the same power. Financial talk aside, knowledge is power, and girls need access to that power in order to chill out on the same playing field as their male counterparts."
- sarahbrowngb, CNN iReport producer