Dear Creativity,
Yesterday was a bit of a frustration and a disappointment. I searched for a video that would be a complimentary element for a 2-day creative coding course I was redesigning and kept coming up short. More specifically, I scoured the Internet to look for a video that described creative coding in the context of careers for the high school girls, whom the course is geared towards.
I watched plenty of videos that could work for the context that were under 10 minutes, but most of them featured men. The few that featured women, did not show examples of their work and only had them speaking more in an interview style. I eventually found something that would work, but along the way, I realized that despite there being a gender balance in the world, women still struggle to play a prominent role in the tech sector. Even in areas like creative coding where art meets technology.
Such a disappointment, that the reality of my youth is still harsh or even harsher today.
Today, I saw example after example of how the right and left brain can be friends and team up with you, Creativity, to bring to life some amazing ideas that we could never imagine. Did you know that one can have a job as a creative technologist? If I were to do grad school all over, it would be so different. The things I could have done. You are right Creativity, that I can do. I am adding that to my multipotentialite feather cap for further exploration. The world needs more women creative technologists to experiment, explore, and exhibit their creative joy widely and freely.
This is me serving the world: artist + computer scientist + storyteller = creative technologist. This has me wondering…
Why are all us adults keeping ourselves from reinventing our purpose in this world, when we can be anything we want to be?
Just look on the Internet and you will see examples of youth stepping outside the box and blending their many passions into careers they are passionate about and bring them joy.
Perhaps the real revolution isn’t just about finding more women in tech, but about rediscovering the sense of wonder we so easily lose as adults. Remember how children play without judgment, experiment without fear, and explore without hesitation? That’s the magic we’ve forgotten—the ability to approach life with curiosity instead of constraint.
We’re not waiting for permission anymore. We’re creating our own narratives, weaving together the threads of art, technology, and personal vision. Each woman who steps into a creative technology role isn’t just filling a gap—she’s expanding the very definition of what’s possible. And isn’t that what play is truly about? Pushing boundaries, reimagining limits, dancing between what is and what could be.
Adult life doesn’t have to be a rigid path. It can be a playground of possibilities. We can learn, unlearn, and relearn. We can be students of our curiosity and explorers of our potential. The world needs more adults who are willing to approach life like a child approaches a blank canvas—with wonder, with joy, with the radical belief that anything can happen.
Here’s to reinvention. Here’s to breaking the mold. Here’s to showing the world that creativity knows no boundaries—not of gender, not of discipline, not of expectation. Here’s to playing again.
Creativity, get ready to buddy up with me on my next creative technologist endeavor. I don’t know what it will be, but I do know that with you there will always be fun and joy in the mix.
Innovatively yours,
Dr. Abigail
