Teen writes children’s book to encourage young girls to learn to code

Sasha Ariel Alston is a 19-year-old college student at Pace University studying information systems and marketing. When she found her love for coding she noticed there weren’t many girls, especially of colour, that shared her love for the topic. Because of this, she decided to write a children’s book- Sasha Savvy Loves to Code.

Sasha spent two years writing the book about a 10 year old who becomes interested in coding, just like herself. The reason she decided to write the book was to encourage girls to learn about coding and STEM fields at an early age.

“The purpose of the book is just to get girls interested in coding and to provide basic coding terms,” she said.

Sasha noticed a huge lack of diversity in terms of gender and race in the coding sector which motivated her to write the book. Her mum also helped her come up with the idea after people continued to ask her to explain coding.

“A lot of people aren’t aware of what STEM is and what coding is,” she said. “I wanted to raise awareness of the acronym, specifically for girls.”

In the book, the 10-year-old Sasha Savvy goes to coding camp with two friends after her mum, a software developer, gives her a peek at what it’s like to code. When Sasha learns she can create gaming apps by knowing how to code, she becomes ecstatic.

Sasha raised money earlier this year on Kickstarter, meeting her goal of $5,000 in just four days. At the end of her campaign, Alston had raised more than $17,000.

Once the book makes its way into the world, Sasha wants her words and Sasha Savvy’s story to catch girls’ attention and encourage them to tackle their dreams.

“I just want them to know they can achieve whatever they want.”