I just feel I have to emphasize what a phenomenal and unlikely life Danica McKellar has carved out for herself. After spending her childhood starring as the beautiful girl next door on The Wonder Years, she decided that instead of becoming a drug addict or attempting to release an ill-fated album, she would go to college. And study mathematics at UCLA. She graduated summa cum laude. I don’t know that the average person understands just how difficult it is to graduate summa cum laude in mathematics from UCLA. But as someone who has taken mathematics courses at UCLA and did not graduate summa cum laude, I’m in a unique position to tell you that this is an insanely impressive accomplishment. As an undergrad, she also co-authored a scientific paper, culminating in something called the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem. I dare you to name another child star who has a fucking mathematical theorem named after them.

And THEN she went on to write two books that encourage young women to love and learn mathematics. They’re titled Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail and Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss. Both books have held steady on the New York Times best-seller list. Amazing. Just amazing. Needless to say, this woman is my hero.

So I am DELIGHTED to hear she’s been able to add true love to the list of blessings in her life. Danica married composer Mike Verta in a ceremony Sunday in the California seaside town La Jolla. The two had been dating since 2001, and got engaged this summer.

Congratulations, Danica. I wish you all the best. May you serve as an example for young women everywhere.

Winnie Cooper is currently promoting her second book about math for young women, titled Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss. Her first effort, Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, was a bestseller.

One of the girls from Jezebel attended her book signing in downtown Brooklyn last night, and Danica said that she wants to show young women “that you can be that girly girl who wears four-inch heels and is good at math.”

I LOVE this.

In my past life, I studied engineering in college, and a group of us women formed a little society called the “Cute Engineering Girls Club,” or the CEGC. There were only a handful of us; young women who wanted to dye our hair blonde and wear short skirts and lip gloss and cute purses and still kicked all the boys’ asses on the physics exams. Like I said, we were a small crew, but it was empowering nonetheless to hang with other women who weren’t afraid of being fashionable and good at math. I love that Danica’s able to carry this message to young women everywhere.

Danica McKellar, who played adorable girl-next-door Winnie on The Wonder Years, is hoping to send a positive message to young women with her new book, Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail. Danica hopes the book will help encourage young women, who traditionally fall behind boys in the discipline around middle school, to stop hating math so much.

After finishing The Wonder Years, Danica pursued a degree in mathematics at UCLA, managing to co-author a paper with a professor that proves a theorem in mathematical physics.

“When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible,” said McKellar. “But I want to show them that being smart is cool. Being good at math is cool. And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life.”

Meanwhile, widespread reports indicate that Lindsay Lohan has begun work on her rookie literary effort, Danica McKellar Sucks.