Janese Swanson

As a girl growing up in the 1960s, Janese Swanson never dreamed of being an inventor. Although fascinated by technology, she had never heard of any women inventors or engineers. Society seemed to be telling her that careers in technology were for men only. Today, as the head of her own company, Girl Tech, Dr. Janese Swanson develops products and services that encourage girls to use new technologies, such as the Internet. Her mission is to help change society's perceptions of girls and girls' perceptions of themselves. "There is a real need in our culture," Swanson says, "to introduce girls to technology-based products and electronics at an early age. It not only increases girls' self-esteem, but helps to broaden the opportunities available to them in the future." Girl Tech, founded in 1995, has already published four books on technology for girls, launched a web site (www.girltech.com), produced a magazine, and invented a line of electronic gadgets that empower girls to use technology. In the process, Swanson has challenged attitudes towards girls in the toy and consumer products industries and the media as well as in schools, in the home, and among girls themselves. Her understanding of girls' abilities, preferences, and needs is based not only on her personal experience as a woman, teacher, and mother, but also on years of professional training as an educator and developer of software products. She holds seven degrees in the field of education, including an Ed.D. in Organization and Leadership, and before setting out on her own, she was instrumental in the development of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and the Playroom/Treehouse series. She has been recognized in Ms. Magazine's "Women of the Year" issue (January 1997) and received numerous other awards.

Her path to becoming an inventor and CEO of Girl Tech was an indirect one. It began in San Diego, California, where she was the second oldest of six children in a single-parent family. As their sole supporter, her mother often worked two jobs, and much of the responsibility for her younger siblings and for the household fell on Janese. Her interest in children thus began when she was young, as did her concern with management and organization. Because the family lived on a tight budget, Janese learned to repair broken appliances, and she discovered she had a talent for and love of tinkering with machines. In her introduction to the book Tech Girl's Internet Adventures, she recalls:

As a young girl, I was interested in technology in many forms. One year, for example, I received a typewriter as a gift. I played around with typing, tried out some of the exercises, and soon decided it was boring. It would be much more interesting, I thought, to take the machine apart and see for myself how it worked. So I did, and I figured it out and changed the keys around so I could type in my own secret code. Another memorable childhood incident was her attempt to get a newspaper route. She was the best bicyclist in the neighborhood, and she thought it would be fun to deliver papers and a good way to earn money; but when she went to apply for a job, she was turned down because she was not a boy! The distributor would allow only boys to deliver its papers. She complained to her mother, but was told, "There are some things you just have to accept." It was that same year that she watched the television broadcast of astronauts walking on the moon and fantasized about becoming an astronaut--until she realized that astronauts, too, were all men.

Her grandfather had other possibilities in mind for her: he wanted her to become a fashion model. Despite her lack of enthusiasm, a modeling agency hired her as a cover girl. Her experience in modeling proved to be valuable for two reasons: during the photo shoots she became involved with styling and layouts, discovering she had a talent for design; and she experienced first-hand the values of "lookism," the attitude that one's worth is judged by one's appearance, and learned how superficial and destructive those values can be, especially to women.