This teenage girl wrote a children’s book about coding for little girls with STEM dreams

As little girls, many of us had dreams about being ballerinas, doctors, or astronauts. Many of us had children’s books and toys that inspired us to learn more about our “chosen” profession, allowing us to explore our interests. But for little girls — especially little girls of color — who are interested in the wide world of tech and coding, finding a book that’s representative and inspiring is nearly impossible. And that’s a major problem — especially when it comes to equality in STEM fields.

That is, until 19-year-old Sasha Ariel Alston wrote her book: Sasha Savvy Loves to Code.

The book, which was written and self-published by Sasha and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, chronicles 10-year-old Sasha as she goes to coding camp with two of her friends. Sasha, who was introduced to coding by her mom, a software developer, is thrilled when she learns that she can create gaming apps by coding.

Thanks to Kickstarter, Sasha (the author) was able to fund this self-published book, raising $17,000 to make it happen — $12,000 over her goal. The author was inspired to create this because:

“A lot of people aren’t aware of what STEM is and what coding is. I wanted to raise awareness of the acronym, specifically for girls," Sasha told Huffpost. 

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If you want one of these books, don’t worry! Those who donated to the Kickstarter campaign will be getting their copies soon. And since Sasha hopes to have copies of her book up on Amazon in June, the rest of will just have to wait a little longer until we can get our hands on these.