
Translation Project: Fantastically Great Women Who Made History
Context
This project involved translating a children’s nonfiction book from English into Spanish for young girls aged 6–12 in Venezuela. The purpose of the translation was to create an engaging, educational, and culturally accessible text that promotes gender equality, empowerment, and historical awareness.
Role
Translator
Tools Used
Trados, Microsoft Word
Example
Source Text (English):
“How did they become so fantastic, brave and inspiring? To make history, you need to be bold, courageous and believe in yourself!”
Target Text (Spanish):
“¿Cómo todas ellas lograron ser tan fantásticas, maravillosas y grandiosas? Para hacer historia necesitas ser ¡valiente, audaz y creer en ti misma!”
Key Decisions & Approach
For this translation, I prioritised naturalness, readability, and engagement for a young audience. Rather than translating literally, I adapted expressions to ensure the text felt inspiring and accessible in Spanish.
- I used dynamic and emotive vocabulary such as “valiente” and “audaz” to reflect the empowering tone of the original text.
- I adapted sentence structure to sound more fluid and natural in Spanish, particularly in rhetorical questions and exclamatory sentences, which are key features of children’s literature.
- I maintained a direct and motivational tone, using second-person structures (e.g. “creer en ti misma”) to engage the reader personally.
- Cultural and linguistic choices were made with the target audience (young readers in Venezuela) in mind, ensuring clarity while preserving the original message.
Challenges & Solutions
One of the main challenges was adapting cultural references and historical concepts for a younger audience unfamiliar with certain contexts.
To address this, I:
- Simplified complex ideas without losing meaning
- Used clear and accessible language
- Balanced educational content with readability
Another challenge was maintaining the multimodal nature of the text (e.g. speech bubbles, visuals, layout), which required careful consideration of text length and structure.
Outcome
This project strengthened my ability to:
- Adapt tone and style for specific audiences
- Apply localisation strategies in children’s content
- Maintain consistency and clarity across a full-length translation
- Balance linguistic accuracy with cultural relevance


