Anisa Benitez Hodelin (she/her)

Anisa is a brand builder, strategic marketer, artist advocate, and creative entrepreneur. She’s built her marketing career at iconic brands, such as: Google, where she has worked on hardware and YouTube; Time Inc. where she worked for TIME magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Fortune magazine; and RCA Records under Sony Music Entertainment.

Today Anisa resides in New York City, where she works as a Brand Marketing Manager for YouTube Music, within Google. She is also the founder of More by Her, a creative project to support women in the arts. Her biggest passions are empowering artists & performers, celebrating culture, promoting wellness, and advocating for human rights.

1/ When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

I decided that I wanted to work in tech when I decided to prioritize growth. After working in industries where my professional and personal growth opportunities were limited, I needed a change. In the music and media industries, I experienced low morale. There were many layoffs, much competitiveness, and nostalgia for the good ‘ole days. I craved that ‘buzz’ of optimistic energy in the office. I wanted to be challenged, to bring my innovative ideas to work with me, to be encouraged to grow. I’m grateful to say I’ve experienced all of this in tech.

2/ Who is a role model that you look up to?

My mom, Joie. She’s an artist, a painter mainly, and growing up she exposed me to almost every art form under the sun. When I was little I spent so much time making: crafting, painting, playing my violin, sewing, dancing, cooking, and designing.

She also home-schooled me and my brother on-and-off until middle school, which allowed us to travel and get exposed to the world. My love of culture, my desire to ‘make’ more than consume, and my love of all arts are largely attributed to her.

3/ Where’s your hometown?

Montclair, New Jersey; it’s near Manhattan. I grew up spending a lot of time in the city and declaring myself a New Yorker pre-maturely.

4/ What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

In February of 2017, my boyfriend at the time and I relocated from Brooklyn to San Francisco for me to start work at Google. We were both away from our families, starting a new life chapter. About 6 months into our new chapter, he had a stroke. He had an extremely rare arteriovenous malformation (AVM) rupture in his brain. I became his primary caregiver for the next 6 months as he recovered his short-term memory, ability to read, write, and more.

Being a caregiver was hugely demanding, emotionally and mentally. The achiever in me wanted to excel at it all: continue to demonstrate that I was a top hire at work, while also managing the hardest job I’d ever had, caregiving. However, I’m only human. I needed a break and I quickly came to terms with it. My manager and team were very supportive and allowed me the flexibility to work from home and from the hospital a lot. I also made sure to dedicate time for restoration: meditation, long-hikes, dance classes, listening to music, and more self-care practices. I became extremely diligent about taking care of myself so I could show up for him and for work. I’m grateful to report that there was a happy ending: my boyfriend made a full recovery and I fell in love with myself!

I’ve faced a lot of struggles, and each has tested my resilience. Each has brought me to a deeper love and understanding of myself. The most important relationship in life is the one we have with ourselves. From my experience, the stronger our relationship with ourselves, the more we can show up for others in times of need.

5/ What is something that you are immensely proud of?

More by Her. I care deeply about supporting women artists and creatives. Over the years I’ve advised many creative women on how to make their art a livelihood. However, this year I’ve gotten clarity that it would be most helpful for me to ‘show’ how and not just ‘tell.’

Growing up I didn’t see many examples of women who were independent and in creative fields. The starving artist stereotype was pervasive and a big turn-off for me. I paid my way through college alone, while working. I graduated from Smith College with an Economics degree and I postponed many creative pursuits to focus on reaching financial stability.

However, I’ve been able to navigate a creative career in business. I’ve met so many amazing women who are also creative, independent, and making a livelihood. I want girls to see the options available to them by providing transparency into the lives of creatives and artists. More by Her aims to do just that. Its creative work will premier later this year. Stay tuned!

6/ What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?

Intersectionality. That our many identities get a seat at the table. It’s important to More by Her, but I’ve also been thinking about it in regards to improving diversity and inclusion in tech. Supporting D&I work at Google brings me a lot of fulfillment, but also doesn’t feel optional. I have to do it! To sleep soundly, I have to! I also serve as a mentor outside of work, through organizations like Built by Girls.

7/ Favorite food?

Sweet potatoes.

8/ Favorite book?

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It dissects ‘success’ by looking at the often unaccounted opportunities and circumstances that affect people’s achievement.

9/ If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?

I’d be a music video director for one of my favorite artists. I work in the art of storytelling, and I think music videos are an underutilized space for artists to create positive change.

10/ If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

“You are strong, independent, and powerful; now ask for help.” I’m honestly still working on asking for help. It’s advice I need to hear continuously.

Nyasha Francis (she/her)

Nyasha Francis is a sophomore from the Bronx, New York, attending Clark Atlanta University in New York. This summer, she interned at GoFundMe, where she worked on website frontend development. It was her first time using JavaScript and React, but she had a wonderful time building new features for the site. Moving to San Diego and visiting the Bay Area was challenging at first, but thanks to her mentors and the welcoming culture at GoFundMe, she excelled and looks forward to continuing frontend development during the upcoming school year.

During the last week of her internship, Nyasha made a presentation to the product team and the CTO about her experience at GoFundMe. Her joy in discussing the new feature that would impact user interaction with the site was exceeded only by the opportunity to show her appreciation to her mentors and truly thank them for changing her life.

Source of inspiration: Talking to other engineers of color.

Book Recommendation: White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

Diana Kris Navarro (she/her)

Diana is currently a software engineer at Tumblr. She was in the founding class of Girls Who Code in 2012, a hackNY fellow in 2017, and was recently featured in GWC’s Sisterh>>d campaign for Day of the Girl. She has previously interned at Adobe, Qualcomm and Gilt Groupe. Last May, she became the first person in her family to graduate from college. She was born and raised in Jersey City, NJ to an immigrant single mother. She attended grade school in Westchester New York to stay with her mother who is a live-in housekeeper. She is now 22 years old and lives in New York City.

“In the 2nd grade, I was forced to move from Jersey City to the house of a wealthy family in Westchester, New York, where my mom worked as their live-in housekeeper. My life turned upside down. I was suddenly living in this huge house that my mom worked in, and we’d take the train back to Jersey City every weekend. I did this until I was 18 years old. I went from an elementary school in Jersey City where most of the students were Filipino, Black, or Latinx, to Siwanoy Elementary School, where I could count the number of non-white students on one hand. Needless to say, I didn’t fit in. I was bullied and excluded. Parents knew me as “the girl whose mom’s a housekeeper.” I actually wasn’t even allowed to go to that public school, but my mom’s boss pulled strings. What got me through it all was my mom. Every day she’d remind me that this was temporary, and that one of the ways I could get out of our situation was doing well in school. And that’s exactly what I did. I took several AP classes, got straight A’s, and landed high school internships. I clawed my way out. I’m so grateful for my mom. She taught me how to deal with people. She taught me empathy. She taught me how to work.”

Gabriela Martinez (she/her)

Gabriela Martinez (she/her) is a Growth Sales Director at Vox Media, focused on breaking new business and creating new advertising revenue streams. She has ten years of sales experience working in media and entertainment, specifically within high growth digital companies. Prior to her current role, she was based out of Sydney, Australia helping BuzzFeed build their APAC business. Throughout her career, she has contributed to the ever-changing landscape of online media — from the early days of streaming video on demand (SVOD) during her time at Hulu to evangelizing global branded content partnerships and beyond.

Gabriela earned a Masters in Business Administration from NYU Leonard N. Stern School of Business, with a concentration in Finance and Marketing. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Boston College, with a major in Communications and Studio Art. Outside of work, you can often find her traveling abroad and spending time with her partner, Nick, and their puppy, Lemmy.

1/ When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

To be honest, the tech life found me! I knew I was interested in Media after having interned at HBO in college. I found it challenging and fun from a personal standpoint, and being in the know of pop culture was interesting to me. During my first job at ESPN, I saw that media consumption habits were changing, specifically with television losing viewership to online portals. At the time, Netflix was disrupting its own business and the media industry by offering streaming video alongside its long standing DVD rental service. An old coworker told me about this new player on the scene called Hulu. I looked around my then television-based office and knew that I wanted to be a part of something different. So I joined the small Hulu team in New York, and the rest is history.

From a personal standpoint, being a part of the build is what I find extremely satisfying. That’s the thing about tech — if you’re doing something right, then you’re always building and pushing past the status quo.

2/ Who is a role model that you look up to?

My mother has always been that person that I wanted to emulate. She immigrated to the United States when she was 17, during the early 1970s while El Salvador was in civil war. Without speaking the language and being a foreign child from little means, she was able to create an amazing life for herself and my father. She worked hard, learned English, and went to college. She’s been a teacher for decades now, impacting the lives of children in New York City public schools. I have always been able to look at her and say to myself, “Wow, if she can do all of that with what she started with, I should be able to conquer it all.”

3/ Where is your hometown?

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

4/ What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

Since both of my parents were teachers, education was the highest priority in our home. I was fortunate enough to attend The Lawrenceville School for high school, which is a prestigious boarding school in New Jersey. Though those years were some of the best in my life, it was also the first time that I truly felt like an outsider. At the time, I was one of very few Latin students in the school, let alone Latin women.

I struggled to feel comfortable in my own skin, while in a predominantly wealthy and white community. It took years for me to stop looking outward to find validation. As I matured, I realized that what made me different, both culturally and socio-economically, made my point of view unique. That high school experience prepared me for the tech industry, where women of color are vastly underrepresented. As one of them, I have to dig deep often and find my own validation by knowing I am more than qualified to have a seat at the table.

5/ What is something that you are immensely proud of?

I decided to get my MBA during my time at Hulu. I also knew that I didn’t want to leave the company because we were doing something innovative and seeing growing success. So, I opted to go to NYU part-time.

The concept of going to school for three or four years to get a two year degree wasn’t an option for me, so I met with a Stern academic counselor at school and walked through what an accelerated program would look like for me. Essentially, it would mean I would be working full time, and going to school full time by dedicating my night and weekends (winter and summer semesters included) for two years straight. I decided to take the challenge on, and was one of the first students to pioneer what is now Sterns’ accelerated MBA program.

I’m proud of this for so many reasons. First, I became the first person in my family to get a Master’s degree. Secondly, Latinx students constitute a small percentage of total enrollment for MBA programs. And lastly, I was able to help build a new part of the part-time MBA program that wasn’t established before.

6/ What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?

The representation of women of color in leadership positions in our industry. Though this always seems to be on the broader diversity agendas of Fortune 500 companies, the examples of them turning to reality are few and far between. As an industry, we have to be more dedicated to diversifying our hires, because different and unique experiences bring new ideas and processes. Qualified candidates exist, we just have to ensure that they are included in the conversation.

7/ Favorite food?

Pizza!

8/ Favorite book?

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

9/ If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?

An astronaut. Dedicating your life to space exploration must be so challenging and so insanely rewarding. Who wouldn’t want to go on a mission to the moon or Mars?

10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

Focus less on what you think others want from you and more on what you want for yourself.

Michelle Pham (she/her)

Michelle Pham (she/her) is a Growth Strategist at Google, focused on building successful marketing strategies for retail and e-commerce brands in partnership with agencies. Innovating for the future and retail are Michelle’s lifelong passions. She designs clothes after hours and enjoyed a thrilling adventure as a reporter covering London Fashion Week. You can read more about her personal approach to style and life on her blog: www.maisondemademoiselle.com.

Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, Michelle graduated from Bates College with a degree in Sociology. As a first-generation college student, she founded Bates’ first Asian-American Students’ Association and is deeply invested in diversifying perspectives and talent in the technology industry. Outside of work, Michelle dedicates her time to initiatives and organizations focused on social justice, poverty alleviation, and economic freedom through access to education and capital. You can often catch her on the squash court, traveling, spending time with loved ones, writing her blog, or reading a good book in a nook.

1/ When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

The technology industry is one of the best playgrounds for people who live in a world of imaginative possibilities. I move and think at an incredibly fast pace, so I knew that I wanted to be in an environment that was ripe and overflowing with change and innovation.

When I entered high school, I was accepted into a unique academic program outside of my school district. The director of the program, Mr. Olson, was a visionary. Instead of home economics and cooking, I learned about blogging, quantum physics, giving back to communities, technology, and a whole gamut of ideas that few 14 year olds get to engage with.

A few weeks ago, I was reading Shonda Rhimes’ “Year of Yes.” She coined a term to define herself: “F.O.D.,” which stands for First, Only, Different. In my life, I’ve often been the first, only, and different in many rooms, roles, and environments. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I have been the sole woman/minority on the team and the only one to speak up on behalf of communities that I come from. I have looked and thought differently from the people who comprised the majority in the spaces that I moved into.

Technology was a space that represented a parallel experience of having to navigate and iterate through ambiguity successfully. There are no rules or playbook to abide by because oftentimes, you’re in the pursuit of something that has never been done before. Google and Silicon Valley are often the first, the only, and the different to bring to life a new idea. I wanted to be a part of creating that magic.

2/ Who is a role model that you look up to?

My mother has the fortuitous gift of foresight. She was my earliest advocate and supporter. An incredible work ethic and an insatiable curiosity to know more about the world are a part of my DNA. My parents escaped Vietnam by boat after the Vietnam War, and my mom did it as a young, single woman, not much older than me. The first time she left, she was caught and imprisoned. On her second attempt, she allowed herself to be in the unknown — never knowing if her boat would be found, what lay ahead, and whether she would ever see the places and people she loved again.

I get my will and persistence for excellence from my Mom. When I started elementary school, my parents hadn’t taught me English yet and I ended up behind in classes. Over one summer, my Mom bought English grammar books and we went through the exercises together. She had previously been a teacher (hired by the UN) while at a refugee camp. We took dozens of trips to the public library. I came back that September and moved from the ESL section to the gifted readers class. This became a theme in my life. If I came home with a 99% on an exam, my Mom would ask me if I did my personal best. She never challenged me to be better than the average or to compare myself to others. She just wanted to know if I was being accountable to myself.

Unlike other traditional Asian families, I was never asked to do domestic chores. She always shooed me out of the kitchen and told me to spend my time reading. My Mom sacrificed a lot for my family by being a stay-at-home parent, but she laid the foundation so that I would have a world of choices full of lofty dreams and wild ideas.

3/ Where is your hometown?

I’m from Vancouver and I’m proudly Canadian!

4/ What is a struggle that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

The best things in life are on the other side of fear. I can tell you many stories, but I want to leave this thought here.

5/ What is something that you are immensely proud of?

I look back at when I was younger and I laugh at my foolish spunk and relentless energy. When I decided to go to the U.S. for college, I didn’t have the slightest clue about how to begin. Unlike several of my close friends, who attended elite prep schools and SAT bootcamps, I was the definition of bootstrapped. I had my Dad drop me off at the ACT testing center at the last possible test date before applications were due so that I could be a standby test taker. It was sink or swim, and I had never cracked an ACT book open prior to that day.

Miraculously, by the grace of divine intervention, I excelled. I had wonderful and supportive teachers who wrote my letters of recommendation. In the end, despite receiving one of the 30 Major Entrance Scholarships to the University of British Columbia, I chose the path of adventure and growth and decided to attend Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. On Wikipedia, Lewiston was listed as the second biggest urban city in Maine, so I thought that life there would not be dissimilar to all the films I had watched about New York. I was in for quite the shock when I landed at the airport.

I always knew that education would be my passport to the world, and that journey will never end. I’m able to take my whole family on wonderful getaways and experiences. I’m able to give money to classrooms and causes in need. I’m able to care not only for myself, but for others. I do my best to leave a positive impact on people and the world. The moments that I am most proud of involve two words: “giving” and “people”.

6/ What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this balance between abundance and scarcity. As someone who grew up with humble beginnings, I lived in an intellectual reality of abundance where I believed that there was always more for me out there in the world. There were infinite possibilities and a world of abundance to look forward to.

Now that I am settled in my career and life in San Francisco, I wonder why this idea of scarcity settles in for many of us who have. When we live in a world of scarcity, we always feel the need to have more, hoard more, and we never feel peace in knowing that we as individuals are enough and have enough to be happy and more importantly, to give to others. I recall a book that I read by a sociologist, Annette Lareau, “Unequal Childhoods” that spoke about how the wealthier we become, the more individualistic we can afford to be, because we do not need to depend upon the social ties of community and family for the essential day-to-day routines (i.e.: childcare, shared housing, or small loans). I think of a line from a Drake song: “I like it when money makes a difference, but it doesn’t make you different.”

7/ Favorite food?

Sushi or my Mom’s cooking.

8/ Favorite book?

I’ve been reading a lot lately. I keep on coming back to How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh.

9/ If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?

I’d be quite content being a high school English teacher. English was my favorite class, and the teenage imagination is a fascinating world.

10/ If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

Relax! Enjoy being in the present moment.

Stephany Yong (she/her)

Stephany Yong (she/her) is a Product Manager at Glossier, formerly at Facebook, and Head of Marketing at Women of Silicon Valley. Prior to Facebook, she worked at Instagram, YouTube, and Box. The proud daughter of two immigrant engineers, she cares deeply about creating equal access to educational resources especially in STEM and celebrating the stories of strong, inspiring women.

After graduating from college in 2016, Stephany moved to San Francisco, where she spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene, hiking around the Bay Area, and rooting for her hometown LA Lakers.

1. When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?

Going into college, I didn’t have much prior exposure to Silicon Valley and the tech industry. I actually spent most of my free time in high school writing for the school yearbook and wanted to pursue a career in journalism.

During freshman orientation at Stanford, there were dinnertime conversations where kids were casually talked about their startup ideas or which systems engineering class they were taking. I was intimidated by those discussions and wasn’t sure if there was a place for someone like me in tech.

Nevertheless, I still wanted to learn more about the startup scene, so I got an internship at a startup called Pixlee, which at the time was based out of the Stanford startup accelerator. After class, I would take a bus to their office, where I worked on marketing and copywriting. After a quarter of interning there, I was absolutely enamored. I got to work with some of the most intelligent, humble, and scrappy people I had ever met, and had a front-row seat to a founding team finding product-market fit and raising their seed round.

Through that experience, I began to draw parallels between the product development cycle — of deeply understanding a people problem and building a solution — with what I loved most about journalism, which was getting to the core of what people care about and creating a compelling story around it. From there, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in tech.

2. Who is a role model that you look up to?

My mom. When she was 17, she moved from Shanghai to West Virginia by herself to live with her uncle and went on to study Electrical Engineering in college. She shared her love of math with me, stressed the importance of doing things in a principled manner (i.e. show your work), and taught me that although you can’t control the hand you were dealt, you can move forward and build what you can with what you have.

My mom is a wonderful role model of a woman that can hack, sew, build, and run anything she wants to, whether it was maintaining our household, fixing up one of the apartments she manages with my dad, rewiring the piping in my bathroom, or helping me construct a trebuchet for my high school physics class. She embodies what a female engineer is in my eyes — determined, resilient, and a humble problem solver.

3. Where is your hometown?

Chino Hills, CA.

4. What is a challenge that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?

In navigating my career, I’ve encountered imposter syndrome at almost every turn — whether it was when I decided to switch my major to computer science late into college (facing the internal dialogue of — wait, programming doesn’t come naturally to me), or when I was applying to PM jobs (wait, I don’t have any formal software engineering experience), or when I started out as a full-time PM at Facebook after college (wait, I feel severely under-qualified to lead this very talented team).

I’m still very much a work in progress on this front, but I’ve been lucky to have amazing mentors and managers who have seen the best in me even when it was not entirely clear to me if I was good enough — they’ve pushed me to speak up more, go for promotions, and take on increased scope.

5. What is something that you are proud of?

I was working at Box the summer before my junior year in product marketing. I loved the people and the company, but I wanted a role that centered more on building products. I had lunch with a senior female product manager (PM) at the company, and she told me that in order to break into product management, I would need to have a strong technical background in computer science. Although I’ve since learned that great PMs come from various backgrounds (including non-technical), at the time I took this advice at face value.

For someone who likes to plan out everything, switching majors halfway into college into an engineering discipline was severely out of my comfort zone. Although I enjoyed the handful of computer science classes I had taken to get my feet wet, coding didn’t come naturally to me. It took a lot of work for me to overcome that fear of failure, but once I set my sights out on pursuing a career in product, I went all in.

For two years, I played catch up and took extra classes, which led to long hours in the library and at office hours. But looking back, it was well worth it — in the process, I ended up taking some of my favorite classes at Stanford in human-centered design that reaffirmed how I wanted to build consumer-facing products. Later that fall when I passed the technical Google Associate Product Management interview, it affirmed that I had the chops to be a PM at a tech company.

6. What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?

This idea of living life at your own pace. I think there’s this meme around turning 30 (especially for women) that you need to be at a certain place both personally and professionally. And once you pair that with Silicon Valley culture, where you’re constantly bombarded with stories of a founder of X having accomplished Y by the age of Z, that pressure to hit targets by a certain age seem even stronger.

I think it’s important to bring into perspective that our careers span several decades and that it’s ok to make decisions that maximize for long-term growth, as opposed to immediate payouts. It’s something I’m actively working on, but getting rid of superficially imposed timelines seems like a good first step.

7. Favorite food?

Clam chowder. I’ve yet to encounter a clam chowder that I haven’t enjoyed, whether it be in a cup, in bread bowl, or from a can.

8. Mac or PC?

Mac

9. If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?

I’ve gotten into a few lifestyle podcasts lately, so I would try out being a podcaster. The podcast in question would be some cross between Armchair Expert and We Met At Acme.

10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?

You’re a lot more resilient and capable than you give yourself credit for. You have as much of a right to be where you are as anyone else; while you should be self-aware of your shortcomings, don’t downplay your strengths. And on a slightly unrelated note, the Lakers are going to suck for the next few years; do not feel obliged to become a bandwagon Warriors fan.