What labels are applied to you every day?

When you hear that a 13 year old, black girl is giving a keynote at OSCON, what do you think?

  1. Wow, she must be a child prodigy, what did she do?
  2. Who are her parents?
  3. She got that keynote because she’s a 13 year old, black, girl.

I’ve heard all three options and a few in between.

The truth is that Keila Banks is pretty awesome. She’s an accomplished blogger/technologist and her 10 minute keynote (to a 4,000 person audience!), “The Undefinable Me”, is well worth watching.

And Keila’s parents are pretty awesome too. They have given Keila lots of support and encouragement as she explores the opportunities around her. They are as inspirational to me as a parent as Keila is.

One Reply to “What labels are applied to you every day?”

  1. I’m Phillip Banks, Keila’s dad as Stormy already knows, and she really loves that you posted this. I’ve been hearing from people all day about it. OSCON really gave her a lot of good exposure. Maybe we’ll have to make an app for this. haha Please like and share her facebook fan page. http://www.facebook.com/thekeilabanks

    Thank you sooooo much Stormy for this. You’re also quoted on the Business Insider article on her.

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