Hey there! 👋 I'm Samaira 🤓, a 17-year-old senior at Archbishop Mitty in San Jose, California 🌉. When I turned five, my parents gifted me a science kit 🧪 because they knew I loved bringing unique ideas to life. But they also warned me that science could be a boys' club, and I would face discrimination just because I'm a girl. I didn't fully grasp what they meant until I attended a science camp where there weren't many girls like me. Despite that, I didn't let it discourage me. However, things took a sour turn when I noticed I was always asked to set up or clean up experiments while the guys did the "important" stuff. They said it was because I was organized, like it was a compliment. But deep down, it hurt. I also ended up being the one recording data ✏️ because they thought I was neat and delicate, and in their own words, they didn't want my "pretty little hands" ✋ to get dirty. It's strange how compliments can sting so much 😖. They were being nice and caring, but it made me feel alone. It felt like they took away the fire and excitement I had for science ❌🔥.

 

I was lucky to grow up in a household where my parents believed I could do anything I put my heart to 💗. When my dad introduced me to coding 💻 at age 6, I fell in love. But when I realized my friends weren't as passionate about it, I decided to change that. Little stubborn 6-year-old me wanted things her way. So I created a board game 🎲 to teach coding and show my friends how fun it could be. When I saw it changing their minds, I discovered my love for teaching and sharing what I created. I wanted to do it more and more, and my mom suggested I start holding workshops. At 7, I thought workshops were when you built things at Home Depot 🪵😬, but after getting my definition straight, I approached libraries. Unfortunately, the first four said "No.” 🙅 They were nice about it, though. They said I was just a young girl and should focus on dolls and princesses, and that I shouldn't stress myself out. But it hurt. My idea of a young girl was someone who tried new things and followed my heart, but that didn't match theirs 😔.

 

People were being nice to me, looking out for me, but it hurt so much. I started thinking something was wrong with me. And even though I felt alone at that moment, deep down I wasn’t. According to a study by Stockton University, around two-thirds of girls are interested in STEM until fourth grade. But things like benevolent sexism become roadblocks 🚧 as they grow.

 

While I was lucky to find libraries 📚 that trusted me to hold workshops and had the constant support of my biggest cheerleaders, my mom and dad 👨‍👩‍👦, many young girls may not have that. When compliments start hurting them, and they think something's wrong with themselves, it leads to scary statistics like only 24% of people in STEM being women 👩‍💻. When women aren't treated equally, we don't have the same opportunities. But in a world where technology is meant to accommodate society, shouldn't the people behind it reflect its users?

 

To make a change, we need to start conversations 💬 and educate 📖 ourselves on how we talk to young girls. That's where BenevoLENS 🔍 comes in: BenevoLENS is my Deep Learning powered web platform that helps us understand how benevolent sexism appears in our world 🌍. Just enter any sentence from any context, and in less than 7 seconds, with over 96% accuracy, you'll know whether there's benevolent sexism🕵️‍♀️. It's not just for individuals seeking to educate themselves; our application extends to education itself 👩‍🏫, legislation 👩🏻‍⚖️, workplace dynamics 🤝, media 🎥, and public discourse 🗣️. It's a collective effort to eliminate gender-based biases 💯.

 

Once we change how we approach conversations with young girls as a society, then we can truly see a brighter future 💡. Because we should never ever underestimate the power of the change that girls can bring 💥.

 

Because I continued my journey in STEM 👩‍🔬, I kept innovating and using science to create solutions. Recently, I developed OVision, a deep-learning platform to assist doctors in creating precision medicine plans for ovarian cancer patients 🧬. I won first in the state at the California State Science Fair 🥇 and ranked in the top 🔟 nationwide at the 3M Young Scientists Challenge. I'm currently working with the ovarian cancer department at UCLA (Go Bruins 🐻!!) to develop it further.

 

So let's support girls, educate ourselves, and speak up when necessary. 📣⚡

 

With lots of love and power 🌈,

Samaira 🦸🏽‍♀️💪🔋