About the editors

The editors are Jenine Beekhuyzen and Rebecca Dorries, and our main aim is to get as many girls as possible to read this book. Our experience tells us that girls often self-select out of a technology career at an early age because they dont 'fit' the image of a person in IT, or they don't have an accurate understanding of what a career in IT can be. We hope to show that all types of skills and personalities can make a valuable contribution to such a growing industry. Us 'tech girls' not only have technical and communication skills, but we are very much girls at heart, far from the 'nerdy' stereotype. We are often not a lot different from you; we love going out with friends, reading the latest best seller novel, listening to music and shopping. We don't spend all of our time on the computer, we have a life too! After reading our book, we hope that you will think seriously about a career working with technology. It really does takes all types of people.

Sponsorship has been raised to to allow us to give the books away free to secondary school girls across Australia. So for every book purchased, another girl will get a copy of the book for free (so girls, send us your orders!). This book would not be possible without sponsorship. We have some fantastic sponsors on board and they have helped us to get the book designed, printed and (soon) distributed. In order to keep producing free copies and get them into as many girls hands as possible in 2008, we are still looking for sponsors. We have a number of different options available if you have missed out on being part of the first print run. We also welcome in-kind contributions, so if you have some handy web skills or can help us to promote and distribute our book, we would love to hear from you. Contact us!

Jenine Beekhuyzen

The idea for this book has been around in many forms for a number of years. I have been involved in research for 7 years that looks at understanding the reasons why females are not well represented in information technology education and work. I volunteer on many projects in education and in the community that deal directly with girls and women and their exposure to technology, such as the annual 'Technology Takes You Anywhere event' with 1000-1500 girls. The idea for this book was that it would be an attractive 'quick read' type book for girls to see the range of technology careers that are available, and to show positive images of the diverse women that work in the information technology industry. The media often portrays IT people as 'geeks' with no social skills (which brings to mind the negative image mostly portrayed in the media). Some IT people are proud geeks and that is great! The word geek here though means 'love technology' but this often isn't what younger people understand it to mean. It takes all types of people to work in IT. The book aims to show the more 'girlie' side of women working in the industry, which is often not seen. We are also hoping to portray that women who do work with technology are intelligent, creative and fun. It is hoped the girls can relate to the women presented in the book through their profiles and their short stories and that after reading this, they may be inspired to consider a career in information technology. More about me...

Rebecca Dorries

After organising, speaking and volunteering at numerous Girls in IT days, this book idea come as a new way of reaching girls and helping the organisers by sharing knowledge of inspirational IT role models across the different states of Australia where IT days for girls are held regularly. I completed a Bachelor of Information Technology with Honours in the area of knowledge management at Griffith University in 2005. In this course, there were often only 2 females in a class of 100 students. I now work in the IT department large multinational organisation, which boasts equal numbers of males and females. Studying and working in IT, it has become obvious to me that there are certain stereotypes believed about women who work in IT, however I have found these stereotypes to be incorrect most of the time. I want to portray this through the book.

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