The following is a conversation between Alyssa Sofat (15), The Fem Word contributor, and Samaira Mehta (12), founder of CoderBunnyz.

Samaira Mehta, CoderBunnyz PHOTO CREDIT: Samaira Mehta

Alyssa Sofat:

Hi, my name is Alyssa Sofat and I'm a contributor to The Fem Word. Today I'm speaking with Samaira Mehta, 12-year-old CEO, founder, and inventor of CoderBunnyz. At age 6, Samaira created this board game company to teach people of all ages the basics of coding in the simplest way possible. She is a great role model and proves that anyone can start their own business. Thank you for joining me today!

Samaira Mehta:

I'm excited.

Alyssa:

You have been featured in Time magazine, The Today Show, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, Google, Microsoft - and by Michelle Obama! You've also spoken at over 50 conferences. This is such an incredible accomplishment at age 12.

Samaira:

Thank you!

Alyssa:

Did you ever think that CoderBunnyz would become such a huge and important learning tool and how did it occur to you at age six or seven to come up with CoderBunnyz?

Samaira:

CoderBunnyz started with me coming across a problem, which was that all my friends were not excited about coding in the same way that I was excited about it. The moment I was introduced to it, I loved it. But when I started talking to my friends about it, I saw that they didn't have the same passion as I did. So I thought, there's gotta be some way that I can make coding fun for everybody. I thought what better way than through a board game. I started telling my parents about the idea I had to create a board game. They told me as long as I did research and knew what I was doing they supported me on it. I found out what went into creating a board game. First, you have to come up with an idea, create rough sketches, then you have to prototype, and then eventually get into mass production. I proved to my parents I knew what I was talking about and from then on they supported me the entire way.

“In the society we live in today, there’s a lot of bias on our gender. We grow up in a world where we feel that girls can only be princesses, can only be dolls, and can only enjoy Barbies. That’s all. We live in a world where girls lose interest in math and science after the age of five because they start seeing what the stereotypes are like. The most important thing is to not let that get to your head.”

— Samaira Mehta, Founder, CoderBunnyz

It started by contacting graphic designers and sending a lot of emails back and forth about how we wanted the board to look. I drew some rough sketches and after a lot of email exchange, we got CoderBunnyz to the point where it is today. I played with some of my friends who originally thought that coding was boring and I also started playing with my brother. I realized that their perspective toward computer science was changing and what I wanted to do now was teach even more kids. I thought, if I can make coding fun for my friends, maybe I could do something like that for other people as well. And then I decided, maybe I could start doing workshops and teach other kids about how the game works. I thought of something simple like libraries or schools where there are a lot of kids.

I started doing these workshops and honestly I never really had the mindset of the game getting big or anything. The only mindset I had was being able to make coding something fun for everybody. Parents then started asking me where they could buy the game. At that time, I was just doing it for fun and I only had three or four prototypes. I was not selling it anywhere or anything, but a lot of parents started asking me how they wanted the game and where they can buy it. I thought, maybe it's time now to get into mass production, so I did. One point in time, CoderBunnyz was trending as the number one board game on Amazon.

Alyssa:

Wow!

Samaira:

This showed me how much impact my work can make in the community and it motivated me to work harder. Still to this day, I don't have the mindset of getting the game big or getting featured in all these big companies. I think it's just the roots that matter. Making coding fun for kids and getting all kids excited about computer science is still my only mindset today.

Alyssa:

Yeah, that is a great way to engage kids and make it exciting. You've had so much success. What's been your favorite part about launching the game?

Samaira:

The part I'm most proud of is seeing the smiles on kids' faces after they write the first code. When I do my workshops at libraries, schools, or companies, I see that there's a lot of kids who've never done coding before and kids who have learned a little in school. But the first smile on their face is after they realized that by playing this game they just learned something about coding. Whether it's about winning the game or just being able to play together, the smiles on the kids' faces are what most appealed to me.

Alyssa:

That must be so exciting! It couldn't have been easy putting something like this together. What are some of the challenges that you faced?

Samaira:

I think one of the biggest challenges for me was my age and gender. When I first started I had this idea to do these workshops at libraries and all the schools. I went to the closest libraries in my area like anyone would do when they first have an idea. I told them I have a slideshow, five or six games ready and I have a whole year curriculum laid out of how I want to carry out this workshop. The libraries told me that they already have online coding programs and I should try again next year. Two or three libraries told me this so I thought maybe my game isn't that good and maybe it isn't worth it. But now that I look back and I think about that moment. Now I wonder if the librarian was thinking, she's just seven or eight and on top of that she is a girl, how could she lead a workshop and who will come and listen to her? That has been my biggest challenge overall. But I think over time it's important to realize that not everybody's like that. I was fortunate enough to find librarians and teachers who did not believe that age or gender can determine what you can or cannot do. From there, I've been fortunate to start doing my workshops and to this day I have led over 500 workshops teaching over 10,000.

Alyssa:

That is so incredible! Who's guided you through the process of creating a business. Do you have a mentor?

Samaira:

The people I look up to the most and the people who inspire me are my parents. They guide me, support me, and are always there for me. But, as you said, I think mentors make a huge impact on our lives as well. Lauren Wilson is a sixth-grade school teacher. He's not my teacher, but he's a teacher in my area and he's my mentor. He came across my games on LinkedIn and he didn't believe that we could teach computer science through a board game. But he decided to try it out for himself, so he bought a few copies and took them to his school and he saw how much fun the kids were having when they were playing the game. He saw that it is possible to teach coding through a board game, and when he told me this I felt inspired and motivated. After a while, I realized that he is a teacher and he gives really good tips and is somebody I look up to with his dedication mindset. So he's my mentor and we've had talks together and he has always been there for me.

Alyssa:

How has COVID-19 affected your business?

Samaira:

I have a mission and initiative to help 1 billion kids in the world gain access to computer science tools. One of the many ways that I was achieving this mission was through my workshops. But, I've realized that it's not very simple to play a physical board game via zoom or any other online platform when you can't be together. Reaching out to a large audience has been a little bit of a problem, but I think there are so many great online tools out there now and this is also allowing me to improve on my skills and find different ways to still be able to make this big goal possible. I've been fortunate to see people starting to lead their coding clubs based on the initiative, One Billion Kids Can Code. They've been doing it online because a lot of places in the world are still in quarantine or lockdown. So they have been using other platforms or creating their curriculums and One Billion Kids Can Code have been also holding their workshops and that's motivated me to do the same myself. I started holding some virtual hackathons and workshops to keep that going as well

Alyssa:

That's pretty cool! As being somewhat of a celebrity now and being recognized by big names in the tech space, how has this changed your daily life at school and with your friends?

Samaira:

I think that's an important question because for me my friends are the whole reason that I decided to create the board game. I've been fortunate that the way people look at me hasn't changed overall. I don't consider myself a celebrity, I consider myself just a normal kid, I still go to school, I still have homework, I still have extracurricular activities, but I choose to invest time towards my mission.

Alyssa:

Where do you see CoderBunnyz headed in the future? What's next?

Samaira:

One of my biggest goals right now is just One Billion Kids Can Code. I think one billion is a big number and it's not an easy task so my goal right now is to work on making it achievable and possible. In terms of my board games, I have another board game launching soon, it's actually around the holiday season and it will be my third board game now. I started this around five years ago and I've gone through , creating a board game, getting rejected, failure, going through success, going through all the ups and downs. I want to inspire other kids to start their businesses and I want to inspire them to bring the needed change in the world today. One of the big things I've been doing to make them feel welcome in this field is, around July, I'm holding a program called Boss Biz. From everything that I have learned from well-renowned entrepreneurs across the world, we're gonna invite them and have them as guest speakers. It's going to be a two-week program where I share how to create the business from the beginning to the end and then look at the chance to create their own and pitch it for the chance to win $1,000 as seed funding to start their business and bring change in the world.

Alyssa:

That's awesome! CoderBunnyz is available at Walmart. Where else can we find the game?

Samaira:

CoderBunnyz is also available on Amazon and as you said Walmart, it's also available on the CoderBunnyz website. Right now I'm also working with other retail stores to try and sell my game.

Alyssa:

What would you say to kids who look at you as a role model?

Samaira:

For all the girls out there, for all kids out there, don't be afraid to go for it. In the society we live in today, there's a lot of bias on our gender. We grow up in a world where we feel that girls can only be princesses. can only be dolls, and can only enjoy Barbies. That's all. We live in a world where girls lose interest in math and science after the age of five because they start seeing what the stereotypes are like. The most important thing is to not let that get to your head. If you have a vision, if you have a passion, go for it and do not care about what anybody else thinks or says.

Alyssa:

I completely agree with that. Thank you for being with us today and being such an inspiration to so many. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you!

Samaira:

Thank you! It was great talking to you too.

Samaira Mehta, Founder, CoderBunnyz | Santa Clara, California