If Amelia Earhart were around today, she might not have had much patience for Instagram. She wasn’t a natural self-promoter, disliked the fuss of staged photos, and rarely reveled in curating her public image. And yet, nearly everything we think we know about her was a carefully assembled product—polished to a high shine and sold to an eager public.
Take the often told story of her spontaneous flight with Eleanor Roosevelt—a tale that even spawned a children’s picture book. The usual version: two pioneering women lock eyes across a White House dinner table, feel an instant bond, and sneak off for a spur-of-the-moment night flight over Washington with dinner guests in tow.
