What is it like to be among teen girls who are passionate builders?
On April 24-26, I was privileged to attend Hack Club Athena Initiative: Sleepover in Chicago, IL — a program designed to encourage teen girls to build and ship technical projects.
This trip was almost entirely a learning curve for me. Not only was this my first in-person Hack Club event, but also the first time flying to another state independently. I would be flying alone to meet people I’ve never met before —which was definitely intimidating.
One of the biggest reasons why I chose to attend Sleepover was because I recently rediscovered my passion for building and programming projects. I hoped that by going, I would find a community of teen girls who are just as enthusiastic about technical projects as I was.
And, I was right.
During the hackathon, I had amazing teammates Shelley Ma and Samantha Lai (Kristena) to build our project: StarryWhisper. Inspired by the theme “In Your Dreams.” StarryWhisper collects dreams and ambitions from people around the world and places them in a shared digital universe. In a world that is increasingly lonely, we wanted to create a collective of stars, reminding everyone that each one of us has a goal and aspiration worth sharing
Building our project pushed all of our team to learn on the fly: Shelley learned to work with ReactJS for the first time; Kristena explored React SVG Pan Zoom to create an interactive canvas for the stars; and I stepped outside my comfort zone with backend development and learned to integrate frontend with Firebase Firestore.
Try it here: https://starrywhisper-one.vercel.app/
Beyond the hacking, I found something even more meaningful: friendships and a supportive community.
We listened to girls pitch original, creative projects, explored Chicago together, sang karaoke, drifted around in rolling chairs, and pulled all-nighters programming side by side.
When I arrived, I didn't know anyone. But after meeting so many passionate creators from across the country, I realized how diverse our skills and perspectives are and how powerful it is to gather in a space where everyone shares the same mission: to build.
I feel fulfilled to leave with an incredible new sisterhood and a stronger drive to keep building in STEM.
Thank you Hack Club for organizing such a thoughtful, inspiring, unforgettable experience. This was definitely one of the most meaningful experiences in my technical journey.