The #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag keeps getting better
Earlier this week we flipped for #ILookLikeAnEngineer, a hashtag that went viral in the wake of platform engineer Isis Wenger, whose image and words were used to advertise OneLogin Engineering, the San Francisco-based company she works for, being told by a backwards-minded Internet that she didn’t “look” like someone employed in her profession.
Wenger took to the Internet to right this wrong, wrote a must-read piece on Medium about the problem, and started the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer, calling on the women of her profession to get on social media, post their photos, and show the world what an engineer looks like.
Now it looks like the hashtag is going to get a second life, off the Internet, as a (drumroll please) billboard. As the LA Times reports, Michelle Glauser, a web developer and friend of Wenger’s, created an Indiegogo to raise funds for that billboard. As she explained in the crowdfunding description, “…the minimum amount needed for a really simple ad contract with advertising agency Titan360 is $3500. For a full-scale ad campaign, it will be closer to $20,000.”
Get ready for some incredible news: within 2 days the campaign has raised almost $10,000, definitely enough for a billboard (achievement unlocked!) and about half of what they need for their dream full-scale ad campaign. So at this point San Francisco is DEFINITELY going to see an #ILookLikeAnEngineer billboard, and chances are, if the crowdfunding campaign keeps going in the direction it’s heading in, the city will see these empowering billboards pop up all over.
“Do you feel passionately about helping spread awareness and increase tech diversity?” Wenger asks in her Medium post. “Do you not fit the “cookie-cutter mold” of what people believe engineers ‘should look like?’ If you answered yes to any of these questions I invite you to help spread the word and help us redefine ‘what an engineer should look like’.”
In addition to people all over the world being able to contribute to the crowdfunding campaign, Wenger and Glauser are hosting an event on August 13th at Rackspace in San Francisco to fundraise for this most worthy cause. We love that this hashtag has busted out of the Internet and is going to take over the IRL world. We can’t wait to see the billboards!
Related:
With one hashtag, these amazing women are showing the world what engineers really look like
#GirlsWithToys is the new kickass hashtag uniting women everywhere
(Image via IndieGoGo)
