News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena have been restored. Click here to learn more.

Women veterans documentary available on PBS

Flickr User Indiana Public Media
/
https://flic.kr/p/dyve78

A recent documentary about female veterans is now available online through PBS. ‘Served Like a Girl’, was made to raise awareness for the some 55-thousand homeless female veterans in the U.S..

The documentary was two and a half years in the making. It looks at the lives of five female veterans transitioning back to civilian life.

Lysa Heslov is the director of the documentary. She said within the last several years, a competition called Ms. Veteran America was created to help the female veterans. Participants are judged on beauty, military knowledge, and how well they raise awareness for homeless female veterans.

“You just don’t think that these women are going to be so beautiful inside and out yet they’ve been fighting for our country on the front lines and raise their right hand and offer to die for us, and so it’s really just this wonderful amazing thing.”

Heslov said whenever someone calls it a pageant, the veterans demand ten pushups. By the time filming was over, she said she did well over a thousand.

The “Served Like a Girl” documentary is available online until June 12 on the PBS website.