Komal Singh, a former Google engineer, recently released her children's book 'Ara the Star Engineer' to encourage young girls to code. The book was inspired by the experiences she faced upon entering the STEM field and starting her career.
By allowing young girls and women to be represented in the STEM field in media and literature, the book enables them to imagine and work towards a career they can be a part of. Komal Singh states "[T]he challenge with not having more girls, when they’re not represented in the workforce, is the products that we build do not represent women and girls, so we do not end up solving things for the entire population." The book tells the story of a young girl who uses creativity, courage, collaboration, and most importantly, code to solve a problem.
Image Credit: Komal Singh, The Globe and Mail
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Girl-promoting Coding Books
- Children's books promoting female role models in STEM fields have the potential to disrupt traditional gender roles and encourage more young girls to pursue careers in STEM.
- Representation in STEM Fields
- Increased representation of girls and women in the STEM field through media and literature can disrupt the current gender imbalance in the industry and promote innovation and diverse perspectives.
- Creative Problem-solving
- The use of creativity, collaboration, and code to solve problems, as demonstrated in 'Ara the Star Engineer', has the potential to disrupt traditional problem-solving methods and inspire innovative solutions in all industries.
Where This Applies
- Publishing Industry
- The publishing industry can disrupt traditional gender roles by publishing more children's books that promote female role models in STEM fields, inspiring young girls to pursue careers in STEM.
- Education Industry
- The education industry can disrupt the current gender imbalance in the STEM field by incorporating more female role models in STEM fields into their lesson plans, encouraging more young girls to pursue careers in STEM.
- Technology Industry
- The technology industry can disrupt traditional problem-solving methods by incorporating more creativity and collaboration into their problem-solving strategies, as demonstrated in 'Ara the Star Engineer'.
