Girls ‘Man Up’ With Technology, Create Dress For Zac Posen

Photo: WENN 

Coding is a cultural phenomenon that has taken America by storm. For those who are outside of the cool kids table, coding is the original formulation of computer programming of which source code is written to perform a specific task or solving a given problem.

Initiatives such as Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code or even Google’s Made With Code are focusing on educating young women on how to create specialized algorithms or applications in an inviting setting. Related tasks such as testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code are just a few tricks of the trade that these fertile minds learn, yet for two teenage friends, it was skills that they used to help a world renowned fashion icon to design an outfit.

17-year-old Brianna Genova, using pattern-making technology developed by inventor Maddy Maxey, took the opportunity to collaborate on a fashion-tech project. Genova, who spent seven weeks mastering code at Girls Who Code this summer, was one of the forces who contributed to the overall technology that powered the final look at Zac Posen’s “ZAC” show that took place yesterday (9/8). “I’m missing my first AP physics class to be here,” she told New York Magazine in an exclusive quip. “I told my teacher it was for a fashion show. He was kind of like, ‘Uhhhh.’”

The growth in the digital realm alone has empowered girls of various ages and backgrounds to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures. Through exposure to computer science and technology, these young developers in training are shifting the language and the playing field that is constantly rife with inequalities. As young as 5-years-old to age “elderly” as 17, these young girls and women are part of a growing class of individuals whom will fill the roughly 1.4 million computer specialist job openings that will be available by 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Even though the girls whom contributed to the Made With Code experiment didn’t know they were actively helping to design a piece of wearable technology — the results were extremely fascinating. The girls made a dress that combined Posen’s inspiration (Los Angeles city lights on Sunset Boulevard) with their coding skills, and even got a chance to witness Coco Rocha saunter down the runway in the dress they helped to develop. “This was simple compared to what we had to do all summer,” joked Aviva Wong, a 17-year-old in the same Girls Who Code class. If you think about how far we’ve come since the advent of the computer, you’ll marvel at just where these decisions are taking us.

Back in 1984, when computer science was looked down upon, 37 percent of its graduates were women. Today, in 2015, that number is just 18 percent. 20 percent of AP Computer Science test-takers are female, and 0.4 percent of high school girls are even expressing any interest in majoring in Computer Science, according to Girls Who Code‘s About Us page.

This lack of inclusion could be two-fold: 1) Women are being told that they cannot do this, or 2) Young women are not being shared the access to learn. More and more programs are popping up with fervor and passionate excitement directed to the young women who are going to tip the scales in favor of a more balanced work environment.

“There are so many fields where coding is relevant,” Wong said. “I can do so many things.”

[via The Cut]

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