![Cover image for [Keynote] Coding's a Drag](https://community.codenewbie.org/images/bT6V-NunUO25ki7VE9W3A3CCMSYW_fMoW97zy4pOInY/rs:fill:1000:420/g:sm/mb:500000/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9jb21t/dW5pdHkuY29kZW5l/d2JpZS5vcmcvcmVt/b3RlaW1hZ2VzL3Vw/bG9hZHMvYXJ0aWNs/ZXMvNDVkd3U4ZHFi/YmU3bWtoeWVlc3gu/cG5n)
About This Keynote
In this keynote for CodeLand 2021, I tell the story of my journey as a coder and drag performer who is committed to making everyone feel that they belong in the tech industry. My goal with this talk is to reach early-career developers who might be doubting their own abilities and validity in this field. You can learn to code, become a software developer, and have a great time doing it!
Takeaways
- Combining your passion with code
- A beginner friendly data structures lesson
- One developer's path to success as an engineer and finding community in the tech space
Slides
🌈 After I present, please leave your thoughts, comments, and questions about my keynote in the comments below!
About Anna Lytical
Anna Lytical is a Developer Experience Engineer at Google and a coding drag performer who creates fun and educational coding content to engage a early-career developer audience on TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and beyond.
This keynote will be presented as part of CodeLand 2021 on September 23. After the talk is streamed as part of the conference, it will be added to this post as a recorded video along with the slides.
Latest comments (41)
Two of my favorite things coming together : Coding and Drag 🌈👩🏻💻👸🏻
What a wonderful thing to witness. And, the talk was amazing, everyone can do anything they want.
Those are my favorite things too!! 💜💜 Glad you enjoyed the talk
Wow! It was late night here in India, so I saw the talk just now (good morning from India btw 🙏 ). It was Amazing!!
Thanks Coding Drag Queen Anna Lytical for the amazing session :D
You're welcome! 💜
Anna,
Thank you very much for your presentation. It was entertaining and and informative. Most of all, very inspiring.
I know that your stated target audience are the young LGBTQ+ budding Computer Scientists and Software Developers. However, this “old dog” is quite inspired and appreciative of your presentation.
This “old dog” has lived so far back into the closet and had not lived a full life as a person or as a Software Developer. it’s only been recently that I am taking a peek through the closet door cracks.
I have left the industry for sometime now and is currently working in retail. I am looking into going back in the software development industry and had been taking online courses — Udacity and Udemy.
My presence in CodeLand is also part of that effort. I had to request personal days off just to be fully present in all the presentations today and tomorrow.
I just wish that I had the mentorship and supportive environment you had.
Here’s to wishing me the best “luck” in my effort to get back on the saddle.
Thanks again, Anna/George.
Good luck George!!! Thank you for sharing your story and for getting back into things!! You'll do amazing 💜
Ohh, ohh. Anna Lytical. I was addressing you as Anna/George in the thank you line.
My name is Loreto. No worries. I can truly see how my message can be confusing. Funny. 😊
I love Anna's positive vibe and the simple explanations about concepts!
"Data structures can be glamorous!"
Thank you Anna!
Good vibes only!! 💜
Yesssss!!! Thank you so much for the talk, Anna!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thanks for sharing your experience, and for making data structures make sense :)
Happy to help! 💜💜💜
Thank you Anna Lytical! That was truly inspiring! :D
💜💜💜
Hi Anna! I'm an aspiring developer who's LGBTQ. I'm wondering if you know of any explicitly queer online developer communities, initiatives, or open source projects?
Hi Jos! I don't have any that I know of unfortunately 🥺 I think there are a variety of organizations that do like LGBTQ+ tech meetups but I find the majority of those to be completely untechnical (which is great to increase the community, but I've found them to almost be less helpful for myself because then I'm like am I the only queer coder here??) Perhaps it will be something in my future to put together 👀 💜💜💜
Bummer, thanks for the response though! Might be worthwhile to try and cultivate some sort of community like that myself. Even if it's just a discord or slack channel?
@whatnotery you might find some connections from these sites ..
outintech.com/
lgbtstem.wordpress.com/
Wow, I love your explanations! Thank you, this whole keynote was so relatable.
RelatableContent is my goal 💜💜
My favorite talk of the day! Love the approachability of learning CS concepts through things we are familiar with in the real world. So so fun!
Yay! I'm glad you had fun, I had fun! 💜
I love and appreciate so much Anna's explanations. My programming classes would have been so much easier to understand.
I think so many programming classes could be easier to understand 😫💜