Nearly 100 young women tackled tech inclusion and took part in 'Black Girls Code,' a program that has teamed up with Google to make digital space more diverse. NY1's Natalie Duddridge checks it out.
These young Girls are laser focused, they're learning how to build games using computer programming.
Nearly 100 girls from ages 7 to 17 took part in a workshop at Google’s Headquarters Saturday, It’s called Black Girls Code.
"You had to put together lots of different things to make this game that was just amazing!" said Austyn, a student who participated in Saturday's event.
Organizers hope the workshop inspires young black women to reboot the tech world, by increasing diversity in the digital space.
"I feel like a huge reason why young women of color are so hesitant to join these spaces, walking into a room, like a lot of the really popular high school hackathons you walk in and you're the only one there," said volunteer Olivia Ross.
Ross thinks programs like Black Girls Code will change that. That's why, at just 14 years old, she's not only an expert computer coder — she volunteers here — to help girls feel comfortable in a new realm.
"Sometimes you have to restart, because it doesn't always work out the way you want it to," Ross said. "Sometimes you have to start again or back track your steps. The game we're making now is you have to guess a celebrities age."
And while some kids grow up wanting to be movie stars or famous celebrities, after learning to code here, these girls say they'd rather be tech stars
"They're here with other girls who think being nerdy is cool so even if they go back to their school and they're the only girl in their robotics class they know there's this cohort of girls they met here," said Raven Ali, regional program director for Black Girls Code.
The non-profit group holds hundreds of workshops and camps around the city and country, hoping that by each bit byte and block, they'll build their own futures in computer science and technology.