Her Story
About Shirin
When I was little, I wanted to be like Tom Hanks in the movie Big - that was my dream job, getting paid to test toys. I got my job at Mattel through an informational interview with my boss and bugged him for 9 months until he finally said yes. I started testing toys in research on Barbie and was there for 3 years, then went to MGA where I started the research department from scratch and became the brand manager for Bratz for about 5 years - that was my live MBA school. In 2008, I had an existential crisis when parents were coming into research focus groups and complaining about how Barbie and Bratz weren't positive role models for girls. I went down this rabbit hole thinking about how I grew up with gaming and educational gaming like Carmen Sandiego, and I had a female computer science teacher in elementary school at LAUSD Public School down the street from UCLA who taught me how to code in Fortran on Apple IIc green screen computers. She was blonde, looked like Madonna, very cool, and I wanted to be like her too. We had mandatory computer science every single day in third grade in the 80s. Nobody ever pointed a finger and said you're a girl, you shouldn't code, but I saw the movie Big at home and was obsessed. I had a Nintendo at home and was always techy. So I started PlayWerks initially to get into gaming because there's not enough women in gaming and girls playing games, although they are playing but it's mostly dress-up games. In 2011, I got pulled into working with the re-election for Tech for Obama because I hit every box they had - female minority, STEM, founder, coder. They kept saying I should do coding programs for 9 months and I resisted, but finally I did research with parents and kids to find out what was missing. Our hackathons are a full wellness experience with sound baths, meditation, fitness, healthy eating, and we've done basketball with Michael Jordan's basketball clinic, dancing with Lady Gaga's choreographers, and basketball with the LA Sparks. It's a healthy balanced tech lifestyle, and at the end of the day the kids get all the tools like coding and entrepreneurship and they pitch Shark Tank style with real investors. I've also taught at USC at the Viterbi Engineering School where my class was Tech for Social Impact, and I've worked with the White House, the City of LA, nonprofits, governments, and celebrities like Will.i.am. My nickname is the Wonder Woman of Tech from Mayor Garcetti, our previous Mayor here.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shirin
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think getting the dream job initially was huge - wanting to be like Tom Hanks in the movie Big when everybody kind of joked and said you want to be like a movie star, you want to be a guy, but I was like no, I want to be like Tom Hanks in the movie Big, that's a cool job, you get paid to test toys. And then having the existential crisis, which led to all this stuff - a life purpose and a mission. I think it's really important because to this day there's not enough STEM, and it's not the sexy word anymore, everyone's talking about AI. I always knew what I wanted as a kid, and I think the media has a really strong influence. I grew up with empowered role models like Linda Carter as Wonder Woman, Pippi Longstocking, Bionic Woman - there were all these empowered role models as a kid that I grew up with. I also grew up watching Rosie the Robot on the Jetsons and was like oh that would have been cool to have that one day. I'm so grateful and blessed to be living in an age where technology is pretty much prominent and we get to use it as a tool. I've also had mentors along the way that have helped me, a lot of men, and they've been really supportive and I'm super grateful for them.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think nowadays, especially, the kids are so lost and there's so much distraction with social media, gaming, and all the different things like TikTok. It's really important for kids to be not just consumers of tech, but creators, and that's where we come in - we're teaching them how to be creators, how to create new jobs that didn't exist. Social media and YouTube didn't exist when I grew up, but now it's massive. Especially now with AI, I think this is a chance for us to be more in real life than ever before, but also more connected in the space, because these are tools. I think it's really important for everyone to get on the bandwagon of technology because every time there's a generation we just move and evolve, we have to learn with technology to move and evolve, otherwise we're kind of in the golden ages where we don't want that. There's a problem because there's the older generation that's kind of against it or scared to use technology, and now with AI it's really important to use the right prompt language. I think there's not enough women in the tech space or women in business that are not just running SaaS companies but real tech companies. We need to showcase more women that are real in the tech space and authentic. There's never been a woman in science media - first we had Mr. Wizard, then we had Bill Nye, and now we have Mark Rober, but there's never been a woman.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
This is more of a life mission and purpose, leaving a legacy. I think it's a powerful way to get the next generation on board, and even older generations. I think it's really important to have the younger kids especially involved because the shift in STEM happens for girls around 8 to 13. We're teaching them how to be creators, how to create new jobs that didn't exist - it's not just a learning tool. I think the media is a really powerful tool to empower the next generation, and I think that's where they get really involved and want to interact. I'm really happy and grateful for the opportunity to share my story because I feel like there needs to be more women that are real in the tech space and authentic. I'm so grateful and blessed to be living in an age where technology is pretty much prominent and we get to use it as a tool.
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