For The Atlantic’s series on mentorship, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” I spoke with Thomas about the benefits of reaching out to a mentor online and the pressure that comes with starting out in an industry known for its lack of diversity. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Elisha Brown: What do you think the industry is doing well when it comes to diversity efforts?
Kaya Thomas: If you asked me this question a year ago, I probably would have given you an optimistic answer. I entered the industry when the diversity conversation started happening in 2013. Tech companies released diversity statistics. Articles followed. There’s been a lot of conversation about what they hope to do—without action behind it. The industry as a whole is failing. A lot of the conversation is only about gender. We have so many other facets of diversity: race, ability, age, orientation.
Brown: You had a dream of working as a engineer from an early age. How easy was it to make that a reality and to pick the specific field you’re in?
Thomas: I had just started my first year at Dartmouth and I wanted to study environmental engineering. The advisor I had intimidated me, and almost discouraged me from doing that. I was wondering if I should stay in STEM, or major in something related to the humanities.
Then I came across Kimberly Bryant’s TED Talk. Kimberly [the founder of the organization Black Girls Code] realized that women of color are vastly underrepresented in the technology industry, and since tech is so important to the future, if we don’t have a way into that industry, we’re going to be left out of innovative things. She talks about founding Black Girls Code to expose young women of color to these skills so that they’re not intimidated when they get to the college age and decide to study STEM. I signed up to volunteer for Black Girls Code, and I signed up for a computer-science class at Dartmouth. The summer after my first year, I was doing an engineering internship at Time Inc. I messaged Kimberly on Facebook and told her how much she inspired me.
Brown: How did your relationship develop after that message?
Thomas: We met in person a few times at Black Girls Code events, but a lot of it has been through the internet—talking, messaging. She advocates for me; she always lets me know if there are internship and scholarship opportunities. If there was something I wanted to apply to, she would always write me a recommendation. Four years ago, she was doing a Black Girls Code event in New Orleans. She invited me and my best friend to be mentors to the girls at the hackathon.
Brown: What was that experience like? Did it feel weird to mentor people who are only a few years younger than you?
Thomas: It can definitely be weird! When we went to the hackathon, I mentored a group of five girls, most of them in middle school and some very early in high school. At the time, I was 18, which wasn’t much older than them. I answered questions that they had about college: applying, scholarships, transitioning from high school. They asked questions related to the technology industry: How do you build an app? How do you build a website?