Girls Who Code @ Refinery29

Getting young women interested in STEM careers is something near and dear to the hearts of our team members– both the men and women here at Refinery29. We pride ourselves on the 50/50 gender split of our Product & Engineering team because we know that the really best ideas come from diverse teams. So when Girls Who Code approached us about doing another event with their campers, of course we were in.

This article was originally posted on July 22nd, 2016

Last week we hosted close to 40 young Girls Who Code students, ages 16–17, split them into 4 teams and paired them off with female mentors from all areas of our staff including Product Managers, Engineers, UX Designers, Product Marketers and QA Testers. The groups were given a specific Refinery29 product and asked to brainstorm ways to improve it. After their brainstorming, they presented to a panel of R29 judges including our Chief Revenue Officer Melissa Goidel and co-founder and Executive Creative Director Piera Gelardi.

Despite only having just started their 8-week camp session, we were blown away by how strong the girls’ ideas were in terms of their approach to thinking of improvements that would work toward a product’s benchmarking goals (eg: user retention, acquisition, etc.), their careful thinking through technical feasibility, and their confident storytelling to the judges when it came time to present their ideas. Major shout outs to everyone who participated!

For more about Girls Who Code and to join their mission go to: www.girlswhocode.com