“I didn’t grow up like Lucy.” Delia rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. “I didn’t have a mom or dad in the tech world. They were—they are—the best mom and dad anyone could have—I could have.” She let herself steal a glance, one, quick, and broke away, because too long and she’d lose her nerve. She would picture how poised her mother would be doing this and she’d never continue.

“I just—” She caught herself. “I loved computers. From the time I could sit in front of one. I did anything I could on them, even if it was paying my parents’ bills.”

“And there were a lot of ’em!” her dad cried, and the audience gave an uncomfortable laugh.

“But I wanted to do more. I wanted to not just pay the bills but pay them better—faster, easier. I wanted to be on the other side. But my school didn’t teach coding; it didn’t even have a club for it. I mastered the free games and apps online pretty quickly, ran through what my library had, and was left with nothing but myself and a stack of coding books. They were dense. Designed for adults, not kids my age, and definitely not girls. If it weren’t for my mom encouraging me, I would have given up long ago. But now I’m here. At ValleyStart. With the most talented people I’ve ever met.” She looked at Nishi. “Ones I could only hope to become one day. I know what it’s like to want something so much you can’t breathe. It’s a wonder I’m alive considering it’s been five weeks of me doing just that.”

The ripple of laughter spurred her on.

“We want girls to learn, we want them to have fun, we want them to be empowered, to realize they can be a part of a world like tech that maybe they can’t see themselves in as easily as other fields.” She rested a finger on the gift her dad had given her the day she left home. “A world that uses marketing copy to advertise something like this—this pendant I’m wearing that’s a piece of a circuit board—as perfect for fathers, sons, and your favorite tech lover. Not girls.”