{"id":47,"date":"2014-11-30T17:53:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T17:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strawberrycode.com\/blog\/?p=47"},"modified":"2014-11-30T19:23:19","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T19:23:19","slug":"let-it-code-breaking-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strawberrycode.com\/blog\/let-it-code-breaking-stereotypes\/","title":{"rendered":"Let it Code – Breaking stereotypes about development"},"content":{"rendered":"

To be honest, I intended to publish a post that was ready to go for a while. But when a friend of mine showed me that article<\/a> (in French),\u00a0here<\/a> is an equivalent in English, \u00a0I changed my mind. Those articles speak about teaching code to young girls thanks to Disney Princesses and breaking stereotypes about\u00a0computer science. And that\u00a0is a subject I hold dear to my heart.<\/h2>\n

I understand that programming sounds intimidating to\u00a0a lot of people, and especially to girls. That’s why I would like to share my story with you.<\/p>\n

I am not a feminist or an activist of any kind. But I strongly believe that everyone should be equal towards education, and that everyone should have the same chance to learn what they want. I had the chance to be raised as a kid, not as a girl, but just as any kid encouraged to be curious. I received the same education than my brothers, without any stereotype about science or literature. Thank you Mom and Dad for that.<\/p>\n

When I studied Science and then Computer Science, it was natural to me because I found it very exciting to create things with my own two hands. I was amazed to see that I could tell the computer to do things and to see them\u00a0happening on the screen. It was a bit magical, but it was cool and I liked it!\u00a0Then, when I started working, I heard two kind of reactions when people asked about my job.
\nReaction 1: “Oh, so you’re a kind of web designer” (answer: “Nope, I write code.” You should see their faces…)
\nReaction 2: “Wow, you’re the first developer-girl I’ve seen. You must be so clever!” (no answer, I was flabbergasted)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Reaction 1, it is really funny to see that people don’t understand that there is something behind what they see on a website or an app. For the majority of people, when they click on a button, some magic happens. That’s it. Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s not really “magic”, developers write code to make the button do something. That’s how it works. I know it sounds intimidating, but you don’t have to be a genius to read or write code. You just need to be curious and determined.\u00a0We just write in a different language after all.<\/p>\n

Have a look at that video form Code.org<\/a>. What they say about programming is very true. And I like the idea of having superpowers too ;)<\/p>\n