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Model Karlie Kloss Thinks More Women Should Code. Here's What She's Doing About It

This article is more than 7 years old.

There’s a new model for women in tech. A supermodel, in fact. And this time next year, a few more women might be working in tech, thanks to her.

Karlie Kloss with students at last summer's Kode With Karlie camp. Credit: Flatiron School.

Karlie Kloss is one of the highest-paid models in the world, according to Forbes’ 2015 ranking, but she keeps rolling out new entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors. She’s launched a well-trafficked YouTube channel, collaborated with Milk Bar on Klossies — wheat-free, dairy-free cookies that raise money for charities — and sponsored coding camps for high school girls. “For me, success is having the opportunity to pursue my passions, especially those that can impact other people,” Kloss says.

With her latest passion project, Kloss wants to “simultaneously close the job gap and gender gap in tech,” and empower women to become professional developers.

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Today she opens applications for the Kode With Klossy Career Scholarship. Every month, one new winner will get free access to a nine-month code class — valued at $12,000 — that prepares her for a career in tech. Through the Flatiron School’s Learn.co online campus, participants will learn multiple coding languages, create a GitHub portfolio and work together to make web apps. Graduates can apply for apprenticeships at partnering companies, which include Instagram, WeWork, Conde Nast, New York Magazine and Vice.

Kloss sees the social significance of getting women in tech: “I think women are currently an underutilized and poorly-supported group of potential employees in an industry that has a widening gap of unfilled jobs. So I think the opportunity is just tremendous.”

Indeed, the lack of gender diversity in tech is well documented. There are many programs — Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code — trying to get girls excited about code, as well as professional programs to help adult women kickstart careers in tech, such as Girl Develop It and Hackbright Academy. But none have had a supermodel mascot on board to bust stereotypes.

Kloss is a natural champion for code literacy among women, because she’s a student herself. In 2014, she took her first coding class at the Flatiron School. Her curiosity about technology brought her in for a 2-week intro class, and has kept her coming back for 2 years now. Though she’s the first to admit she’s still learning, she makes time in her busy schedule for coding lessons with the Flatiron School’s cofounder, Avi Flombaum.

What's unique about working with Karlie is that this is purely her own intellectual curiosity,” Flombaum says. “She's passionate about learning — not just code, but a lot of things. And she's become passionate about sharing that learning experience. I have no doubt that curiosity is one of the things that helps her stand out in her industry and drives her to do things that most people don't, entrepreneurship included.”

Her passion for sharing the learning experience took off last summer, when she sponsored 21 high school girls to attend the Flatiron School’s 2-week intro course. Kloss says she was inspired and energized by meeting young women who are “incredibly passionate about making meaningful social impact on the world”  and are “wired to succeed at anything they do.” This year, she’s expanding the high school scholarship program to 80 girls in 3 different cities — Los Angeles, New York and her hometown of St. Louis.

Yet while developing the high school program, it became clear that there was another important population Kode With Klossy could serve: adult women ready to commit to a serious job-training education in code. The summer program for high schoolers was receiving applications from women older than 18, which Kloss says “helped us recognize we wanted to offer something like these career scholarships.”

The Kode With Klossy Career Scholarship program, she points out, “can be learned [outside of] a 4 year degree, in a more independent style. And I think that really speaks to a lot of people.” The program for adult students is both more flexible and more intensive. Kloss explains that it, “could be a better experience for women 18 and older, who could do it on nights and weekends and at their own pace,” with the ability to build websites and apps upon graduation.

Kloss sees this as her way of giving back to the next generation of female coders who inspire her so much. She says she wants to "continue to build this community as big and as supportive as possible," saying "It’s not about me. I feel like I’m just connecting the dots.” She says, "It’s already a success in my mind in many ways. But there is so much more we can do and I really hope to."

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