Nevertheless, Jess Lee Coded

#wecoded

I began coding because...

I found myself freelancing on Squarespace sites. Not even building 'custom' templates -- just making simple drag-and-drop sites with an !important CSS tweak here and there ðŸ˜. It was a lot of fun but I eventually felt the limitations of a cms and wanted to understand how Squarespace was built.

At the same time, I was also working as a business analyst at a SasS start up and saw that only developers were treated as first class citizens. Combined with my frustration at the gender imbalance in STEM, it was pretty clear what I had to do. I joined a bootcamp.

I'm currently hacking on...

You're looking at it! Currently hacking on dev.to, with the hopes of building an inclusive and valuable community for developers worldwide.

I'm excited about...

This project -- "Nevertheless, She Coded"!! Seeing all the responses that have come in so far have been absolutely incredible. One day, hopefully there won't be 'women' who code, 'girl' developers, or tech 'ladies' because there won't be a need to call out identity differences and we'll all be the same.

But until then, women rule.

My advice for other women who code is...

Networking is invaluable. But it is also very difficult - do it as often as you can bear. Go to events with a goal in mind, and think about what you can offer. But most importantly, be kind to yourself and practice self care.

Also, ergonomic everything âœŒï¸