Quotes from Kimberly Bryant

Girls who participate in Black Girls Code think of themselves as leaders.

The images you see in media are vital to impacting not just what the world sees in terms of who can be a computer scientist, who can be techie, who can be a geek or who can be a creator; it also impacts the girls and what they internalize.

We want to teach girls of color the skills they need and create a diversity of voices into the tech community.

I had been tracked from grades 1 through 12 in an accelerated program in the public school system in Memphis and had done well in math and science classes. When I was getting ready for college, my guidance counselors suggested I look into engineering.

Technology can be biased in how it's developed if coders aren't careful. There are apps that are clearly made by companies with no people of color on their team.

It's always been my dream to be an attorney, and I'm that weird breed of human being that loves being in a courtroom.

I believe it is incredibly important for women and people of color to become the builders and creators in technology. In order to do so, we need to know how to code or, at least, know the language of coding - what I like to call 'code speak.'

We need to really focus on getting this digital equity across the board in all of our public school systems, for both girls and boys.

Although we use a lot of technology and consume a lot of technology as people of color, we're usually not the ones at the tables doing the creating of it.

We want to see companies making a good faith effort and putting some tangible initiatives behind their pledge for diversity.

As the coding movement continues to grow, the common narrative of the white male geek as the predominant influencer on geek culture will erode.

If technology is designed mostly by white males, who make up roughly half our population, we're missing out on the innovation, solutions, and creativity that a broader pool of talent can bring to the table.

I don't think quotas are necessarily an evil. I think when we look at industry in general back to the '60s and the '50s, the way more diverse people like my dad and mom's generation were able to break into industry was because of affirmation action, because of quotas.

While there should be collective efforts to increase tech inclusion overall, the industry must work to specifically attract and retain women of color.

We understand bringing girls into the tech space is about giving them skills to create social impact and change in their community.

We're creating this new breed of techies who are going to be the ones starting the tech companies of the future.

We need to have women as role models, both inside and outside corporate America's leading tech companies, leading the path for other women.

It's critical for girls to see role models like myself that are in technical fields. Looking for ways to come in as speakers or do a career day, or just find a way to connect with students or invite students to their workplaces to shadow them for the day... is critically important.

Some of the perceptions from my professors were that I was less than or that I wouldn't be able to compete or wouldn't be able to meet the same bar as my peers. I don't want that for my daughter or for any of the girls who come into our program.

I definitely think there needs to be more of a focus and movement on getting coding taught in schools. There's really only so much after-school programs like Black Girls Code can do to really drive that change. And those classes shouldn't only take place in high school. We should make sure that we teach kids about coding at an early age.

When I started Black Girls Code in 2011, there weren't any programs that had a foundation in communities of color to teach our kids about technology.

Technology is a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, and the accompanying geeky lexicon has infiltrated every facet of our modern day society.

Gender is not central to coding.

We like to say we hope to be like the Girl Scouts of technology, having many different chapters in many different states as well as many different countries.