While many may envision teenage girls in front of their computer screens posing for selfies and devouring social media, there’s a lot more these girls are capable of than updating a Facebook pic. Building their own websites, for one.
Cambio on Monday celebrated a relaunch of their lifestyle website, redesigned and programmed by Girls Who Code, an intiative to bring more female computer scientists into a male-dominated field.
Nisha Dua, General Manager of AOL Cambio who helped bring Girls Who Code onto the project explained that there’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes of making a website. “The girls worked on everything from the editorial vision to the wire framing, UX/UI, to coding to design to testing the site.”
For Cambio, the girls built two unique products: Celebspiration, a mobile-first product that allows girls to create personalized, shareable, inspirational celebrity memes; and Cambio COL[LAB], a contributor network that will enable girls everywhere to add content to Cambio.
Nikki Allen, 17-year-old Bronx resident attending Collegiate Institute for Math and Science participated in the project and advises to “Never be afraid to do something challenging. Take it upon yourself to be the beginning of a movement.”
Girls Who Code offers a summer imersion program in New York, along with other U.S. cities, to welcome sophomore and junior girls into the world of computer programming.
Natasha Driver, a 17-year-old Bronx resident attending St. Jean Baptiste High School participated in Girls Who Code’s internship with AOL Cambio after seing an email with the summer internship opportunity. “The moment after I read [the email], I jumped at the offer. I’ve always found myself more useful to do something meaningful over the summer than just sit around.”
Instead of just sitting around over summer break, Driver collaborated with her Cambio coding team to share ideas and determine what would work and what wouldn’t, ultimately implementing successful ideas with code. “It was definitely a learning experience, as we constantly asked for help from the lead developer to make sure we were on the right track and doing what needed to be done,” she said. And it definitely got done! Driver believes that creating shareable content like the site’s “Celebspiration” feature will prove that other girls can build exciting products as well.
Driver believes that other girls can follow in her coding footsteps. “Never let what others are doing stop you from trying. It might look hard and frustrating at first but it truly is worth it when you end up with a product that you’ve made yourself. I think everyone should give it a shot because it just might be something they can do as a career in the future. Plus, girls sometimes come up with the coolest ideas.”
If you’re a girl with cool ideas or know one, check out girlswhocode.com/programs to learn more about getting involved.
