Star Simpson

(TBC MIT does not have a quota for girls)

You're a badass, Star, any way you slice it :-)

I could have been a more relaxed 15 year old, but I realized early I'd have to fight like a honey badger just to be me. It is what it is.

Every generation of women in tech has had it better than the last for decades now. Inheriting the legacy means understanding the dawn.

A former friend in high school told me that by applying to a college that I probably wouldn't attend, I was taking *his* spot.

When I *got* into MIT, the boys at my school attributed it to quotas. Yet, all the amazing engineers I've met welcomed me into their club.

i had several experiences where classmates would casually drop the "it must suck knowing you only got in b/c of affirmative action" line

Fuck those people.

same x2- And then once I was there I got some "you don't really seem like you belong here" -- but I'm sure they meant nice (insert eyeroll)

As a professional, I'm top tier and effectively top of class on all my teams. But still, those comments are deeply undermining at the time.

Usually, the engineers who tell me I'm proof women have "made it," are the worst. I want to hire as many mediocre women as we hire men!

When I got into MIT, many said it was because I was a girl. Even when I also got into an honors program at Columbia for top 3% of applicants

I ended up going to Olin, which at the time was unaccredited. Those same people then gave me tons of shit for not going to MIT or Columbia.

When I started at Microsoft as PM, I had someone tell me that they hired women as PMs and testers who "weren't good enough to be developers"

He invaded my personal space a bunch when we went to a bar, added me on Facebook before I'd even arrived home, and asked me out. I said no.