By Erin Lindsay
21st Mar 2018
21st Mar 2018
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 09: Model Karlie Kloss attends 2015 Glamour Women Of The Year Awards at Carnegie Hall on November 9, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Glamour)
Karlie Kloss is one of those modern women who seems to have it all: she’s a top model, lives a jet-setter lifestyle and is part of one of the most famous girl gangs on the planet. So it’snice to see Kloss giving back to communities while kicking the “dumb model” stereotype at the same time.
In 2015, Kloss set up Kode with Klossy, a programme that offers free classes and scholarships to girls between the ages of 13 and 18 who want to learn to code. The two-week course enables girls to learn about front-end and back-end software engineering and covers applications such as Ruby, Javascript, HTML and CSS coding languages. At the end of the camp, the students present a mobile app or website that they have built themselves. The programme was well-received, and its alumni have gone on to use their skills in coding in areas like healthcare and furthering the network of women in STEM.
In an announcement earlier this week, Kode with Klossy said that they would be expanding to run 50 camps in 25 cities, and will teach 1,000 girls how to code. They have also teamed up with TeachForAmerica, an educational organisation, to recruit their STEM teachers to help with the programme.
In a time where women are being encouraged to get involved more in STEM, especially at young ages, Kode with Klossy is tapping into an area that needs attention. In a 2014 report by Accenture, it is estimated that only 6%-7% of tech jobs in Europe are filled by women. Women and girls interested in STEM have been steered towards more “suitable” career paths for their gender in the past, but as Karlie Kloss herself has found, the two can work together.
In a piece for Teen Vogue, Kloss reflected on how “the intersection between fashion and tech” was where she was most interested. She said: “Every day, I see technology become more important to both the business and creativity of fashion. I am fascinated by how code has transformed entire industries and powers so much of the technology that we rely on everyday.”
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