Mrs. Frizzle, the quirky, animated science teacher in the children’s television program “The Magic School Bus,” inspired a generation of young people to explore science topics and make fun a central part of learning.
But despite the show’s popularity, children’s connections to the fictional character lack the real-life impact of people like Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, David Attenborough or Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Sophie Shrand, who graduated from Northeastern University in 2011, calls it the “Frizzle problem:” her term for what she considers a shortage of well-known women who teach science on screen.
“Mrs. Frizzle is amazing, but she’s a cartoon,” said Shrand. “We have more and more women doing science on screen than we have before, thanks to places like YouTube. But we still don’t have the household name status.”
The situation helped drive Shrand to combine her love of performing and passion for science into one targeted career path. After graduating from Northeastern with a degree in behavioral neuroscience and another in theater, Shrand has spent more than a decade educating the next generation of STEM students through her distinct brand of engaging, comedic television shows.
“Sophie just has just this wonderful, warm, enthusiastic personality,” said Wendy Smith, Northeastern professor emerita who has kept in touch with Shrand since teaching her cell biology class in Boston. “It’s been really lovely to see her combine that desire to communicate with people and enhance their appreciation of science.”
“Science with Sophie,” her award-winning YouTube series that started in 2018, teaches a range of foundational science topics, with a quirky skit format featuring a cast of memorable characters all played by Shrand. Her popularity and cultural relevance among young learners has earned her national recognition. She was named an Obama Presidential Center Featured Changemaker in June, where she was also invited to co-host a panel alongside Nye – one of the most beloved American science figures in media.
The opportunity to share the stage with Nye at the “Learning Democracy Through Laughter” panel and speak about science education to the hall of about 300 teachers was a moment of pure validation, Shrand said.
“It was literally and metaphorically a passing of the bow tie, because [Nye] lent me a bow tie for the panel,” she said during a recent interview. “It truly felt like I was being knighted, like admitted into the club.”
In recognition of her creation of STEM-focused media production company Cool Jacket Productions, Shrand in August was also named a fellow of the 2026 Women Who Empower Innovator Awards. The program invests in Northeastern founders across categories of AI, technology, health, arts, entrepreneurship and social change.
Her interdisciplinary areas of study coalesced after her graduation when she began teaching at science museums in Boston and Chicago while performing at historic Chicago improv comedy troupe, Second City. She soon found herself meeting with major television networks to pitch the idea of a self-hosted series that combined science and theater.
But conversations with the producers didn’t go as she hoped. Shrand recalled one executive who said that they had already greenlit a show with a woman host, and couldn’t justify accepting a second one. Another approved of her idea, but told her she would need to find a male co-host if they were to move forward. Their comments pushed her to walk away from the negotiating table and, instead, form her own company.
“I need to own this idea and make it with integrity and authenticity,” Shrand said of her decision to create “Science with Sophie” independently, which has since garnered millions of views and fans worldwide. “Maintaining that ownership of the vision has paid off over and over again. It’s a long game.”
Shrand said major media networks have seen her success and are knocking on her door for help drumming up engaging programming for younger generations. She credits her show’s popularity to her own authentic fascination with science and real, unpolished approach to production and storytelling.
“Rather than having the perfectly-polished bubblegum version, or dress-ified pink-ified version of what a disassociated executive might think kids want, I get to learn what kids want and then make it,” she said. “I think it really shines through, because the person on screen talking to them is the person who talks to them in real life.”
Smith said the program fills a critical area in the representation of female scientists in the media market, showing the reality of women in STEM fields.
“A huge percentage of PhDs in biology and behavioral neuroscience, like Sophie, are women,” she said. “It is weird that you don’t really see that reflected in the media.”
In October, a 13-year-old fan told Shrand that she had been watching her show since she was 6 or 7 years old, she said. The girl said a song about climate change sung by Shrand’s “Mother Earth” character – modeled after a grouchy grandmother – has been stuck in her head for years.
“That’s what I want, to be growing up with a kid, in a way, to stay with them through their entire lifetime of learning,” Shrand said. “I want it to be an example for other women who like really different things and don’t know how to put them together.”
Source: news.northeastern.edu
