Research says, if girls aren’t interested in coding by the age of 12, it’s unlikely that they will ever be interested
Dee Saigal is the CEO and Creative Director of Erase All Kittens (EAK) - the first game designed to inspire girls to code whilst equipping them with 21st Century skills. Saigal thinks that the most significant being the changes that Brexit will bring with restrictions on hiring skilled workers outside of the UK, and maintaining company culture as her team continues to grow and work remotely. EAK aims to inspire 50 million children to code by 2026, and to help close the gender gap in tech. In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice, she threw light on the impetus of learning how to code, especially for girls.
- Why do you think girls must learn to code and how challenging can it be for them to do
that in a man's world?
Since our world is becoming increasingly digital, girls who learn digital skills are ahead of the
curve. Programming is now being used in every profession - girls who learn to code will have far
more opportunities, higher wages and flexibility in their career, than young women without these
skills. In today’s world, there’s the literate and then there’s the computer-literate; of the two, it’s
the latter group that is more poised for success.
Knowing how to code helps with critical thinking and logical reasoning - by encouraging children
to deal with large problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable ones.
Through doing this, it’s possible to come up with innovative solutions to otherwise complex
problems. And young women growing up with this way of thinking will always have more
confidence in their own ability and potential.
Right now the vast majority of the products and services we use have been made by men -
coding games for kids are a perfect example of this as most have been designed to appeal
more to boys, such as Code Combat (fighting battles) and Hakitzu (fighting robots). Unless more
girls and women start using technology to shape the world we live in, the gender gap will keep
growing.
- Gaming is usually synonymous to men, tell us something about your perspective to
turn the tables and bring women to the forefront.
Data published by the Statista Research Department revealed that women accounted for 52%
of the gaming audience in the United Kingdom. There are now an estimated one billion girl
gamers in the world, and an increasing number of online organisations and conferences in the
UK, which make it easier for women to get into gaming. These include Women in Games and
POC in Play - the video games diversity organisation and movement, designed to address the
lack of representation and inclusion of People of Colour in the games industry.
When I was younger I wanted to be a games designer. I loved art, creative writing and coming
up with ideas for games, but coding had always seemed like an impossible task. We weren’t
taught coding at school, and I couldn’t see anyone who looked like me making games, so I
assumed that I wouldn’t be smart enough. After my degree in graphic design at Central Saint
Martins, I ended up working as a creative copywriter in advertising for six years, before deciding
to try something I was more passionate about.
I left Paris where I was working full-time for an ad agency called TBWA, and came back to
London, attending lots of meetups in gaming and education. I met my co-founders, and after
teaming up in a Global Game Jam, we started working on Erase All Kittens in the evenings and
weekends - trying to come up with the most fun and engaging ways to teach young children, especially girls, to code. A decade ago I could never have imagined that I'd end up as the founder of a company. Perhaps if I'd had the encouragement to learn to code as a child this would have given me the confidence to follow my dreams sooner.
After carrying out extensive research with students, we found that if girls aren’t interested in
coding by the age of 12, it’s unlikely that they will ever be interested.
We combined different factors - kitten gifs, quirky characters, a real storyline with subplots,
interactive dialogue and an ‘instant results’ mechanic where players can change the game’s
source code, to build and fix levels - in order to inspire even the most reluctant child to love
coding and creating. The R&D we carried out was invaluable in understanding how young
children (especially girls) learn best - and enabled us to inspire over 150,000 children to code
without doing any marketing.
- What are the skills that you think a girl needs to learn in the 21st century?
Skills and topics which I think are essential for young girls to learn in the 21st Century
1. Coding - transferable digital skills as opposed to just computational thinking (currently taught
in schools)
2. Cybersecurity
3. Online behaviour (trolling, plagiarism, cyber permanence)
4. Fake News
5. The Environment / Climate Change
6. Money Management
7. Design Thinking
- As a founder, what are your immediate challenges, vision and learnings while nurturing
Erase All Kittens?
I was initially concerned about fundraising, and then hiring and remote working - since we’re
creating a new coding game which required years of research and development. It is now clear
that investors have a greater interest in education and impact investing, which makes me feel
more optimistic about the future.
I learnt that although working together from an office is important, remote working can be very
effective when using the right tools and allowing employees more flexibility is a good thing, as
long as you prioritise building your ‘dream team’. I learnt more about how to build and maintain
cohesion in the team, and how to manage my time effectively - delegating and speaking with
key advisors on a regular basis.
Being in education technology, we’re in a more fortunate position than many small businesses.
We just recently raised a round of investment funding, our traction increased by 500% since
March 2020 and we’re in the process of finalising several major distribution partnerships.
However, we’re still facing similar challenges to other startups. The most significant being the
changes that Brexit will bring with restrictions on hiring skilled workers outside of the UK, and
maintaining company culture as our team continues to grow and work remotely. There will
continue to be major changes in the education sector and markets, which are difficult to predict
at this time - adapting to them may be challenging.
There is definitely more of a spotlight on education now, and I’m excited about the huge
potential we have to democratise access to learning transferable digital skills - particularly with
giving girls the confidence and skills to code and create. Our aim is to inspire 50 million children
to code by 2026, and to help close the gender gap in tech.
