Harriet Quimby spent her early career as a writer. She became the first licensed female pilot in the United States on August 11, 1911 (ten years prior to Amelia Earhart). In November of the same year, she was one of the first women to fly an airplane in Mexico City. In 1912, she wrote, "The airplane should open a fruitful occupation for women. I see no reason they cannot realize handsome incomes by carrying passengers between adjacent towns, from parcel delivery, taking photographs or conducting schools of flying." At the time, she was the only woman writing about and encouraging other women to enter aviation.