Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done

Gr 8 Up—The authors, two extremely talented teenagers who met at a summer learning program called Girls Who Code, were tired of seeing young men receive most of the encouragement to pursue STEM jobs. They were also done with men driving conversations about women's bodies. Gonzales and Houser decided to do something about it. The empowering video game they created, Tampon Run, quickly went viral and ultimately changed their lives forever. This book aims to provide students with the inside scoop on coding and what life is like for women in STEM industries. Through alternating chapters, readers discover a bit about each author's background and how she came to attend Girls Who Code. The inspiration and reason behind their magnum opus are also explored. Gonzales's and Houser's writing styles are conversational and work well to dispel the aura of inaccessibility that often surrounds works on technology. (Houser talks at length about her social anxiety, and Gonzales discusses the pressures she felt as a child of two Filipino immigrants.) Curious teens will enjoy a section at the end on getting started in coding. Gonzales and Houser never make their story sound easy, but they do show readers that success in STEM fields is more than possible for women.