My daughter is a Girl Who Codes.  For my readers that are not familiar,  Girls Who Code is a National non-for profit organization that inspires and teaches girls coding skills to equip them for careers in computer technology fields. It breaks down barriers that exist as our female student reaches middle school. Did you know that only 4% of U.S. female high-school girls express an interest in majoring computer science?

The funny thing happened a couple of weeks ago. One day while exploring Twitter as I love to do, I came across these cool stickers that said “Code Like A Girl” I reached out to the designer to find out if we could get them for our girls here in Chicago. Unfortunately, at the time they weren’t available. She was miles away, in Canada actually.  We decided to keep in contact and I was excited about her business objective. Now I am pleased to announce the launching on her online store.  It is wonderful how the connections of social media can pull two worlds that are far apart so close together. Check out what she is doing and please support her efforts.

FOUNDER OF “CODE LIKE A GIRL”:MEET DINAH DAVIS

Dinah Davis  is the founder of Code Like A Girl. Over the course of her career she has held positions from a  software developer, a team leader, manager, to now Director of Research and Development at Arctic Wolf Networks.

The concept behind Code Like A Girl is simple, to celebrate women and girls in the world of technology. Dinah says. “my passion is to break down the perception that women are not able to thrive in tech. I hope to achieve this by creating a space that demonstrates what women can accomplish through technology and provide the tools to all who want to support my vision”.

I started the concept of Code Like a Girl with a sticker a year ago. I had been invited to participate in the Think About Math workshop for girls in grade 9. As a mentor I would get 8 minutes to tell a group of 5–8 girls my story and why I chose a career in tech. In total I spoke with about 20 groups of girls. When preparing for the event I started racking my brain for something they could take home to help reinforce my message. Stickers I thought! I liked the idea that by placing stickers on their binders, books, or school bags they would remember my talk and my message that girls can and should consider careers in technology. It was also exciting to think that other girls at their schools would also see my message. I started looking online for cool stickers about girls coding. I found next to nothing and what I did find was prohibitively expensive. I realized the only solution was to make my own!

After some thought I knew I would like to incorporate the statement: Code Like a Girl in the sticker. It is a strong statement that implies when you Code Like a Girl your work is awesome. I didn’t want the sticker to be just words though. I wanted a logo with it, but I didn’t have a lot of time to do it. After some horrific attempts at a design (just because I can code does not imply I should design anything… ever…), I decided to use vistaprint to create a logo and had 80 stickers made for the event. I mistakenly thought that would be enough! Not only did all the girls want them, so did the other professional women at the event! It was a success.

Find out about local events and interesting articles by liking  Code Like a Girl Facebook Page.

Support Code Like A Girl by purchasing products from the Code Like a Girl Store and joining this important conversation by spreading our positive message of Women In Technology. All proceeds from these sales will go directly to supporting the Code Like A Girl vision.