We sit down with the Mythbuster, cosplayer and STEM advocate to talk about gender, science and media.
If we were to build a prototype “Heroic Girl” from scratch, chances are pretty good we would end up with someone like Tamara Robertson. Robertson began her career as an engineer climbing through the ranks of corporate America and creating Women in Leadership mentorship programs along the way. When she became a vice president, she noticed that she was almost always the only woman in the room.
This led to a major career change. Robertson quit the business world to transition to working outreach full-time, trying to get more girls involved in STEM fields.
Moving to L.A., Robertson auditioned for the new version of the pop-engineering classic Mythbuster, a role which her lifetime of engineering, acting and leadership had uniquely prepared her for. She made it to the final three and was the last woman standing in a field crowded by men. Since then has become one of the leading female hosts and engineers on the Science Channel lending her talents to Scijinks with Johnny Galecki, Mythbusters 2.0 with Brian Louden and Jon Lung and most recently on Mythbusters Jr. with Adam Savage.