A long overdue introduction
When I created this publication in 2018, the idea was clear. I wanted to curate stories of women in tech that I found inspiring. The plan was simple; look up women famous in tech and give a rundown of their story in a bid to inspire new female entrants into the tech space and girls in general.
However, I came to realize that there are quite a number of similar ideas out there. None of them really spoke to me and I didn’t want to add yet another one to the list. So I parked the idea for a while but it was something that was constantly at the back of my mind.
Not so recently, I have taken to listening to podcasts while I work. I used to be a music girlie but something about listening to podcasts and smiling at a reference they made that you understood while writing unit tests just hit the spot. My favorites currently are How I built it by Guy Raz and Corecursive by Adam Gordon Bell.
In one of the last few episodes I listened to on Corecursive, I discovered Nadia Odunayo — an avid reader who built a Goodreads competitor and mood reader app — The Storygraph as a pet project and had to scale it overnight as a hobbyist developer.
I also learned about Krystal Maughan and her journey from working in lighting in film to doing a PhD in programming languages. More recently, I heard about Kate Gregory who survived cancer and built a community that’s geared towards making C++ more welcoming and inclusive. If you took a traditional route to becoming a software engineer/developer you definitely know why that’s a point of interest.
It took a minute but it finally hit me; these are the people I’d like to read about as a female software developer. They are relatively ‘normal’ people like myself who have regular lives and are not topping some ‘women who made history’ lists.
They’re relatable role models and they provide some assurance that your goals are attainable even as a ‘normie’. You can do your own little thing in your own little world and make an impact.
So I am reviving this idea of mine. However with a twist. I don’t think we need yet another run down of their CV. It’s going to be more of a personal positive commentary on their experiences and what I can take away from them.
If that sounds like something that’s right up your alley, feel free to follow and do give the publication a shout-out.
See you in the next article!
