Yahoo Finance Meet Anna Lytical, the drag queen making coding glamorous and fun
Anna Lytical is the entertaining and educational drag queen who makes coding glamorous and fun.
A Google developer by day, Anna Lytical aims to improve LGBTQ representation in the tech industry by uplifting the voices of those who are out in tech.
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“We’re not being depicted in the media as being tech people, as being engineers,” Anna Lytical told In The Know. “I love drag, we’re gonna represent ourselves in tech, we’re going to change the world. Let’s build this community. If we are out and in tech, let’s highlight more of our voices, and let’s get people talking about that.”
By combining her passions for drag and computer science, Anna Lytical is demystifying coding for beginners as she posts free coding lessons on her YouTube and Twitch channels. Anna Lytical’s lessons are entertaining and creative; each project she posts is connected to an element of drag. For example, Anna Lytical may use fun facts about makeup, sewing or wigs to explain certain coding concepts.
“I’ll take maybe an eyeshadow palette and say, this is just like an array. It’s an organized data structure. Every element in here is the exact same kind of thing, the same size,” Anna Lytical explained. “And arrays are one of the core data structures when you’re learning to code. So having a visual representation makes it so much easier to work with.”
As many beginner programmers may feel intimidated by the steep learning curve, the creativity in Anna Lytical’s coding projects provide an easy and enjoyable transition into the STEM pipeline. Anna Lytical makes sure all bases of the industry are covered for her followers — her content touches on the basics of web development, computer science, algorithms, data structures and coding interview questions.
With Anna Lytical, STEM is now fun, simple and inclusive, especially for members of the LGBTQ community.
“The purpose of my work is to bring a more diverse group of folks, specifically LGBTQ+ people, into coding and technology,” Anna Lytical told In The Know. “I do this by creating content that is accessible and engaging for us. And I do this by myself being an out, successful engineer.”
Since beginning her coding education journey, Anna Lytical has also refined the purpose behind her drag artistry and queerness. In a world that pressures people to keep their day job and their hobbies separate, Anna Lytical defies those pressures to make a difference for future generations.
“I love that with my drag, I get to have a purpose,” Anna Lytical said. “I get to show, yes, we’re going to center the queerness. And we’re going to do the coding, and really meld the two together.”
Anna Lytical currently has over 130,000 followers on TikTok and 7,000 subscribers on YouTube — and she plans to keep growing her brand.
“I want to reach anyone who feels like they don’t belong in a computer science classroom or who feels like they’re not represented in a computer science classroom,” Anna Lytical said. “Getting to show more people that we can do this and we can be flamboyant and in code, we can be fabulous in code, all rhinestoned up, or be however we want to be and code. It’s not limiting in that regard.”
The post Anna Lytical is the drag queen making coding glamorous and fun appeared first on In The Know.
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