Get to know Cat Footwear ambassador Athena.

Space Day is celebrated on the First Friday in May in North America to mark the most extraordinary of humankind’s achievements – its steps towards becoming a space-venturing species. The day is celebrated to promote math, science, technology, and engineering education in young people overall.

As a brand who empowers employees in all of the above industries, we are proud to continue inspiring the next generation of workers who will be pioneering Space exploration for years to come.

We couldn’t think of a better match to celebrate Space Day with than Cat Footwear ambassador Athena Brensberger, @astroathens, and self-proclaimed “Astrophysicist Barbie”. Athena is a science communicator and fashion model.

As a science communicator, Athena creates content specially around astrophysics and overall space exploration. She created her brand, Astroathens, to be a platform to convey an educational message about space science. As a model, Athena has worked on photo-shoots for magazines, TV commercials, film and movies around the world.

We chatted with Athena about her non-traditional career path and her passion for space and discovery:

Q: How did you get into creating content about space and modeling? What is it about space that is so important to you?

I’ve always loved science and also entertainment. Since I was a kid, I was obsessed with the stage. I used to use it to convey an emotion or story through dance, music or theater. My platform, Astroathens, is like my stage now where I shifted that purpose to spreading a message about scientific advancements and tech. Astroathens began as a personal story-telling place of my life, which mainly contained my modeling work and some news about space, but now I feel it has more to do with educating the public in space science, and really me just being a grownup kid attending rocket launches.

Q: What would you say to people who might feel pressured to stick to one passion in life or a traditional career path? 

What makes up a rainbow? All colors in the visible light spectrum. You don’t just see a red rainbow or yellow rainbow – no, it’s all the colors. Think of your life like this. What makes you whole and beautiful is all that makes up you, the rainbow. So if you stick to just one color, you may not be complete. If you want to be a coffee shop owner and theoretical physicist- do it. Plus, maybe you’ll find some quantum fluctuations in your coffee.

“If sharing my story might inspire just one person who may feel torn, stuck, or fearful to pursue a life of uncertainty or an unconditional career path, then I feel as though I’ve begun to make a difference in the future of innovative creators.”

-Athena Brensberger, @astroathens

Q: What’s your goal with your content and your platform?

To increase the number of people that are educated in our place of human evolution. This means being aware of not only cool science discoveries, but also seeing how it’s shaping us as a society and what’s to come for technology and people.

If we all approach things with critical thinking and apply the scientific method to everyday things, I think it will aid tremendously in how we make world decisions (climate, political, etc.).

My content may be one small step in the staircase, but I think using social media is the place I’m meant to be for this step because there’s a lot of ill-thinking and non-educational content that has been impacting our population (especially younger kids) in a negative way. I think it’s more important to have people who are scientifically literate or entrepreneurial to have a presence on social media to balance and hopefully out-weigh the negative content that can have a lasting effect on humanity’s future.

Q: What is the coolest thing or innovation happening in Space right now? What are you most excited about?

Personally, Starship. WE ARE SEEING HISTORY IN THE MAKING. I’m heading down there soon. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere, at a coastal and kinda dusty area of Texas – and this is where the next generation spaceship that will bring humans closer to the cosmos is being built and tested daily. I’m excited to be a passenger one day.

Q: We saw you posted about the Dear Moon, the first civilian lunar mission. Can you share your thoughts about this?

Dear Moon is a tremendous example of what I personally think we’ll be seeing so much more of in the coming years. And that is, funded missions to bring various people to space that are curious, passionate seekers of truth and of knowing why we’re all here. This is the transformation of humankind that began during Apollo and although yes, it it’s been 52 years since the start of Apollo, hey, 52 years in comparison to the age of a star is nothin’! So I am patient with humanity. I love humankind’s path and journey and if it takes us a few decades more, that’s okay. WE WILL DO IT THOUGH. One day, we will be seeing people roaming our neighbors in the cosmos.

Any last thoughts?

Drink the space kool-aid, meaning spend some time immersing yourself in the mysteries and mind-blowing aspects of space. I swear, it’s the one thing that’s made me feel so extraordinary. I’ve approached life so differently and my problems seem so small, yet my ability to breathe so unique. “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” – Carl Sagan.