Today is Ada Lovelace day.
This is a day for celebrating women in technology, and since I am a woman in technology... I'm celebrating!
I've been taking things apart and building other things since I was a toddler. I'm fascinated by how the world works. I like maths, and learning new things, and reading science fiction.
I also like baking cookies, and reading fantasy novels with magic and dragons, and the colour pink.
And you know, it's OK, you can enjoy solving equations *and* baking cookies... it's OK to be a girl and like science. (here's proof)
My Dad is really into science, and my Mum is really not. But neither of them EVER said to me that I couldn't do something or be something because I was a GIRL.
My Dad wasn't too thrilled when, at the age of 16, I decided I wanted to be an engineer... but that's only because he doesn't like engineers in general. Engineers and accountants.
There were quite a few girls in my Maths and Physics classes in 6th Form, but not so many in my engineering classes at University. But, to their eternal credit, none of my male classmates or engineering professors ever said I was inferior because I was a girl.
Rubbish because of not doing my homework, yes. Rubbish because of not studying, yes. But rubbish because of not being a boy? Never.
I think it would have been tragic if, at some point, someone had told me that I shouldn't like science and I listened. I could have become a teacher, or a writer, or a musician... but being an engineer is *fun* and I love it.
So here's me encouraging girls to enjoy science and technology, and I hope that you take the opportunity to do the same. Look, even Barbie's doing it.
Here are some women in technology who I think are awesome:
- Becky Stern (super smart and ultra creative lady!)
- Joy The Baker (cooking is, after all, tasty chemistry)
- Leah Buechley (designed the awesome LilyPad Arduino)
- Amelia Earhart (amazing lady)
- Ms. Frizzle (educator extraordinaire)
- Imogen Heap (musician & singer, heavy on the tech!)
