Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
There was nothing that I was a part of or experienced as a little girl that told me I could have a career in tech.
I had supportive parents who exposed me to a range of activities. I did well in school – I was especially good at math and joined the math club and competed in math competitions on top of being a cheerleader, dancer, and athlete. But everything I learned about technology, I learned from just exploring on my own. Like many girls of my generation, my first foray into coding and technology was via designing the perfect Myspace page.
When I saw myself in the future, I saw a successful dancer. Even though I was really intelligent, I didn’t care about being smart; I wanted to be seen as a cool, fun person. And it wasn’t until my dad realized I was serious about majoring in dance in college that he intervened and began to help me explore career paths that built on my academic strengths — and gave him the peace of mind of career stability. No one in my family had ever been a computer engineer, but my dad suggested I look into the field because I was good at math and science and, more importantly, because he saw it as a more viable career path than a professional dancer.
I can look back now and see that there was something inside that would move me in the direction of tech, engineering or problem-solving, but I also realized we have a lot more work to do to get girls of color interested in tech fields.
If we are going to be serious about increasing representation in tech — and we should be, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because technology works better when its programming considers a diverse set of perspectives and experiences — then we have to take a more proactive approach to inclusion and making tech a field where girls of color can see themselves and their…
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