Hi and senior developer advocate. Um and I'd love to share to you today. Uh a little bit about my journey, it's gonna be a little different. I know everyone's journey is different.But I at the very end, what I want all of you to know is that this is just one example and I hope it inspires you to create your own story and to create uh better stories to share with everyone else. So I'd like to start with this very uh this infamous meme. I'm hope you haven't seen it. But there are many variations of this and this kind of is where this whole conversation started. So um I started my Instagram account like most do uh just because I wanted to share my journey as a software engineer and me specifically, I'm a little bit on the the girl side, the fashiony side, like I love my stilettos. I like wearing makeup sometimes I like fancy shirts like this, you know, and when I looked on Instagram to try to see if there were any other software engineers who may have looked like me or at least dressed like me. I couldn't find any And so that's what prompted me to actually start my account. So I started posting, I started trying to share actual uh educational posts, you know, sharing what, what, what does the terminal do? Uh what do these commands mean?

How do you, you know, build AC I CD pipeline. I just started sharing things that I was learning and the hopes that anyone who was following me would also learn from my account, that's what I wanted to do. And so as this started to grow, uh And because it was a public account, I am very aware that a lot of these photos can be used misused. And that's exactly what happened to this particular one right here. So this is when I was still at my job uh in a small company here in Las Vegas. And um you know, there's a lot that could be said, but essentially this one was chosen and it got mem ified, right? Nothing is more beautiful than a girl who writes code. And I'm like, ok, that's like that's flattering, I guess. And I'm like, ok, cool. I'm a little, I'm a little meme now and granted this is also Facebook. So I'm taking everything with a grain of salt. Uh But as I went in and started looking at the comments, that's where it got really, really um let's just say disappointing. So if you look at the top comments here, uh there was generally the basic theme were comments like this. I never saw a female developer wearing high heels and standing at the desk makes no sense. She's an impostor or whoever codes like that isn't standing because they know that they'll be there for hours fixing bugs. It's not an efficient way of, of coding or wearing those clothes.

She's more likely looking for the Snapchat button. Now, mind you all of these comments were based off of this single picture. Some people didn't even think that I was for real. Like, oh this is just a uh um a stock photo and someone just put some words on it, right? And shared it on this meme. No, it got, it got worse. There are things like this like oh girls that are developers would never dress like this. The girl in the picture looks more like A PM. So there's like multiple things wrong with that. Like number one, why is what I'm wearing have anything to do with what my possible skill could be? And number two, why would it imply that P MS are less technical or less on whatever this hierarchy that he's thinking of than a developer both have their merits and everyone has a role to play in tech. You don't have to be just a developer to, you know, be considered a real person or a real uh qualified person in tech. So you can see the rest of these comments are just kind of perpetuating the stereotype that I feel like a lot of us may have already dealt with unfortunately, and that's there's this preconceived notion, this uniform that a lot of people think need to exist before you're taken seriously.

And I highly, highly disagree with that. And what I want to share with you is that um a lot of these things come from what we see, right? So the greatest example is that, you know, every time you watch media and every time they show hackers and uh any developers or anyone technical, it's always showing someone in this, right, a black hoodie. So you're telling me that if I wear this, if I wear this black hoodie, that all of a sudden my technical skills go way up and that I'm this genius and I am definitely a developer. Absolutely not. This has nothing to do with my skill, this has nothing to do with my experience, this has nothing to do with what I have done. And it's very, very frustrating to feel this kind of bias against um you know, me in conferences at work and I'm sure a lot of you may relate. Hopefully not. But if you have, I I feel you, I feel that kind of prejudice against you that you wouldn't be taken seriously just because you're not wearing what has been deemed the developer uniform.

And what I want to tell you is that, well, there is no uniform, it's, it's on the other end of the the spectrum here, it's not to say that in order to be a developer, you have to be super fashionable and wear heels and more makeup and then you know, that's ok too what I want to really get to and to share with you all.

If there's anything you take away from my session today, is that where, what makes you comfortable where, what makes you feel like you because that has no bearing on what your skills are, that has no bearing on what you do that has no bearing on what open source projects you contribute or what blog posts you write or what software you create or what things you contribute to your own platforms at work.

These things don't matter when you're going in the context of hyping yourself up and getting that promotion that you deserve these things that you do, like what I wear or what I use have no bearing on whether or not I negotiate a higher salary for myself. Have you ever had a conversation where someone is paid more? Just because they, they wear something? I know that's a whole another conversation. But the point is is that it shouldn't and that's what I really want to drive home to you today. Now, as I was seeing all of these comments, I obviously got a little bit disappointed and uh it's, it's, it's ok to feel upset. It's ok to feel, you know, like you don't belong and I certainly felt that for a while, not just from these, you know, this random Facebook page that mem I me and I got comments like this but also in, in real life, um, when I would go through my jobs, um, I would always dress the way I normally do.

That's pencil skirts, dresses, heels. If I'm feeling really fancy, I wear some makeup and I've been told at least several times in my job, what that, I was too fancy that I was wearing too much that, you know, that looks more like the marketing department or the sales department. And I always question back and I said, why do you think that is, or how, why do you think there's this uniform or why do you think what I'm wearing doesn't imply that I am a technical person and it really made them think as to, you know, what of preconceived notions they've had, they really had to stop and think and say, huh, that is actually true.

And I encourage you to not, um, get afraid or kind of cower down and stop wearing what you want to wear just because you feel like you would be taken more seriously because I have done that. I have, I have gone through that, uh, when I was earlier in my career, um, I would get these same comments and, uh, I would, I would wear these, I would wear the black hoodies. I would wear the jeans and the sneakers and all that in the hopes of uh getting some sort of approval or not having to have that conversation that I'm not uh you know, that I am actually a software engineer. But what I found was I was just very uncomfortable that made me feel even more like an imposter because that's not who I was. I did not feel comfortable in these things and some of you may, may feel comfortable in that and that's ok. But for a lot of the developers, I've spoken to, especially women who like to wear something that is just outside of the black hoodies and jeans, uh stereotype uh have come up to me and said, you know, I would rather, you know, wear this or I would rather use that. Another one of the stereotypes that I have seen is uh all of these, these wars that are just unnecessary and one of them is, uh, you know, you're only a real developer if you use a Macbook Pro, that's probably one of the, the silliest ones that I've heard, but it's still pretty prevalent and I think it's a really, really, uh silly thing to base someone's skill on.

There's absolutely no merit in that. And I want you to know that no matter what you're using. If this is something that has been bothering, you don't let it waste any more time in your head. Um But what I want to get at here is that as I, as I read through these and as I experienced them, I, I tried to look for some support with some fellow women. And another thing I wanted to point out is that what was really disappointing on this particular meme is that there were other women who kind of played into this, this stereotype, you know, they have, they have other women here who were supposed to be lifting each other up, were supposed to be staying together and really supporting each other.

Kind of feed into that and saying, are you sure she's a programmer because they don't typically have time to brush his or her teeth or no way she does that or show me a program, a girl who wears those kinds of clothes. So it was really, really disappointing to see other women also criticize me just because they have also fallen into that stereotype. So if there's anything that you take away from this particular section is that try not to, to do this, why, why do we tear each other down if you do participate or even if you have these thoughts, even if you don't directly say it to someone, if you have these kinds of thoughts running through your head, um try to see what's happening.

Like why are you thinking those things? Are you falling into the stereotype? Because you yourself have experienced that, you know, women who dress a certain way are less technical, probably not but these are the kinds of things that we need to be aware of and put in the forefront and help dispel those kinds of things away. Because when we do that, we can start to focus on the things that, that matter, we can focus on the things we're actually doing, the things that we're accomplishing the people that are getting together and helping and supporting each other. These are the things that should matter.

Now, the other things that I wanted to say is that, um despite all of these things, it's really important to kind of find a way to push through that for me personally, whenever I would encounter these kinds of things, it actually almost fueled me to say, you know what, I'm going to prove all of you wrong and I'm gonna do it in heels and that was kind of my way of resisting all of this.

If I saw a negative comment or if I saw someone making a comment towards me directly at work, um I wouldn't get in their face or I wouldn't ask them to, uh, you know, challenge them on anything like that except for maybe asking why they think dressing a certain way means something.

But I kind of just channeled and focused all of that energy into really building my career, really focusing on things that mattered to me and focused on learning as much as I could, getting more uh knowledgeable in the things that I was working with and it was only then it was indisputable what you could say, right?

If you can talk the talk, if you can build the software that you want to build, if you can deliver the things that you want to deliver, then it doesn't really matter what you're wearing or what you're using. And uh in the course of, of all of these years in my, my career, uh I did just that. So one of the examples I have here is I actually wrote a book for kids and that was one of the biggest accomplishments of my, my career. It was the hard, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But uh the point I want to make here not just to show look how amazing I am is that you can do this too. You don't have to worry about being taken seriously because of what you're wearing. Don't put any time and focus into that. Focus on what matters to you, focus on building your career, getting to the place is that you want to be helping the people that you want to help and everything else will just follow. And the most important thing about that is that there is absolutely no uniform required for you to do that. So thank you so much for listening to me.

If you have any questions, I will certainly be in the chat and I want to thank everyone that has been a part of this conference. It has been an honor. Thank you so much.

Great job. A lot of people were definitely associating with what you were saying. Uh You know, it's, I love the premise of your talk just that we're not in uniform uh and appreciate your insight, especially on the Macbook and the hoodie. Great job presenting and sharing with us.

And um what we'll have you do is you could probably hop over to the chat as well after your session and answer any questions. We appreciate you getting us back on time. I'm trying to see if there were any small questions that popped up that could address, but it was just a lot of um people sharing it and, and a takeaway is just women supporting each other. That was something I heard from your talk like we don't need to feed this beast. We can just support um the uniqueness of all of us. And um it looks like a lot of people just really resonated with it. So great job. Again, let's give her a round of applause. We'll see her in the chat. Uh And again, thank you for sharing about how there is no uniform for developer. There's no uniform for women intact other than our hearts, which could be booming for each other all the time. Clearly getting cheesier, the longer this goes here. So

we'll allow it. We'll allow it for these next companies.

Thank you. So catch her in the, uh, in the chat. Hopefully you can put your information in there. A lot of, thanks for what you do and with that, we're going to, uh, see you off stage. Thanks again.