Mary Shelley: The Goth Girl Who Invented Science Fiction
(Women in History: Spooky Edition #1)
Before vampires sparkled and zombies had Netflix series, there was Mary Shelley: an 18-year-old goth genius who casually invented science fiction during one gloomy Swiss summer.
Because, of course, the mother of monsters was a teenage girl with too many feelings and not enough societal rights.
A Summer Without Sun
The year was 1816, a.k.a. The Year Without a Summer.
A volcano erupted in Indonesia, the skies turned grey, and Europe spent the season trapped under clouds.
Mary Godwin (not yet Shelley) was holed up by Lake Geneva with her boyfriend Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord “Drama” Byron, and a handful of poets who thought they were deep.
Someone suggested they all write a ghost story.
Mary actually did.
The rest mostly smoked, brooded, and complained.
The Birth of Frankenstein
Out of that nightmare came Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus: a story about creation, hubris, and what happens when men try to play God and then ghost their own responsibilities.
Still relevant. Especially on the internet.
The Girl Behind the Monster
When Frankenstein was first published, it appeared anonymously.
Critics immediately assumed it was written by a man - because obviously, only men could imagine science or horror.
When her name was revealed, the backlash was instant.
A woman? Thinking about science and death?
How dare she.
Real-Life Gothic Energy
Mary Shelley’s life read like a gothic novel.
Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and died shortly after childbirth.
Her half-sister died by suicide.
She lost three children.
Her husband drowned at 29.
And through all of that?
She kept writing.
Because apparently, women can survive anything - including romantic poets.
What She Created
Mary Shelley didn’t just invent a monster. She invented a genre.
No Mary = no Asimov, no Alien, no Halloween aisle.
She raised questions about ethics, creation, and responsibility that still haunt us today.
And she did it before she could even legally vote.
The Legacy
Next time someone says only men write good horror and sci-fi,
remind them the first to do it best was a teenage girl, grieving, dreaming, and rewriting the world by candlelight.
Why She Still Matters
Mary Shelley’s story isn’t just about monsters or science: it’s about the power of imagination and the audacity to create something new when the world tells you you shouldn’t.
She’s why this Women in History: Spooky Edition series exists - celebrating the women who turned fear, intellect, and rebellion into art.
Next up: Ada Lovelace: The First Tech Witch.
