As a little girl in Tehran, Iran, Maryam Mirzakhani was spellbound by stories. She delighted in visiting the city’s crowded bookstores, eyes glued to the page, enraptured by stories about her favorite fierce protagonists. Then, at home, she'd spend hours drawing her own characters on giant rolls of paper that covered her floor. Maryam’s love of reading helped her to love school, too. But she did not like math. It didn’t come easily to her, and the numbers felt cold, unrelatable—the very opposite of the bold, adventurous personalities in her novels. But then Maryam unexpectedly discovered a new genre of storytelling: geometry. In geometry, the shapes had their own set of fascinating personalities, just like some of her favorite characters. Which made every formula or equation just a brilliant story waiting to be told. With that wisdom, she invented new equations, games, and even new shapes and surfaces, ultimately becoming and the first woman and Iranian winner of the Fields Medal—the highest award in math.