What if a teenager's nightmare became the most famous monster story in history?

The Day Mary Shelley Was Born!

Meet the teenage girl who invented science fiction!

Mary Shelley was born and later wrote Frankenstein as a teenager, inventing science fiction!

On August 30, 1797, a baby girl named Mary was born in London, England. Nobody knew it yet, but this little girl would grow up to write one of the most famous monster stories ever!

Mary Shelley had a pretty tough childhood. Her mom died just eleven days after she was born, and she was raised by her father, who was a famous writer himself. Mary LOVED to read and write stories, even as a young kid. She would sit by her mother's grave and practice reading!

Here's where it gets REALLY cool: When Mary was just 18 years old, she went on a vacation to Switzerland with some friends. One stormy night, they had a contest to see who could write the scariest story. Mary couldn't think of anything at first. Then, she had a nightmare about a scientist who creates a monster out of dead body parts!

That nightmare became the book "Frankenstein" — and it changed everything! Mary wrote about science going wrong, about what happens when people try to play God. Nobody had ever written a story quite like it before.

💡 Mary Shelley was only 18 when she started writing Frankenstein, and she came up with the idea during a scary story contest on a stormy night!