My early years were built around all of the stereotypes one might imagine, as a child born a couple of years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., in the projects of Harlem. My mother divorced my father when I was five and became a "single mom," raising her children in what some considered the ghettos of New York City. This could be a long story, but I won't repeat it here. These early years are not about the stereotypical life I had, it IS about "the secret life" of Geekette '84, who later becomes @digitalsista.

Arcades today are not the gamerooms I knew. It has since turned into an interesting big business. I was born a nerd living in the projects and had no idea what that meant at the time. I would send my brother straight home after school (he might have another story) and hop over to the corner store across the street from where we lived, only to spend time on the arcades.

My curfew was "when it gets dark," and I would play on a quarter competing against anyone who dared to challenge me on Pac Man, which, by the way, was originally designed for girls. Frogger, Centipede, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Donkey Gong and a few others I would also compete with anyone who would present a challenge. My mother thought I was hanging around for some boy I liked (I was the only girl), and the store owner wanted me to go home because he couldn't make any money on the games with me there. In my view, neither understood my passion and just wanted me to stop.

My mother decided to purchase a game called Atari, in the hopes that I would stay home to play pacman and pong. So I did, and soon the commodore 64, 128, and Apple IIe appeared in my life and Geekette '84 was born. 

There are many challenges thet I faced in school, with counselors and others clearly tried to remind me that a girl from the projects should choose Barbie over Atari... which I was NOT willing to do on any day. So tech/coding/internet became my secret life that only a chosen few even knew existed. Digital Sista is who I became when I was finally willing to share my knowledge with others. 

Typecasting never changed my love affair with tech. I would say to those that had an interest, but were told to do something else, you don't have to share it with those that don't understand. For those that don't understand because of stereotyping, you seriously need to study "social design" because that is what you are actually doing... designing people to fit into boxes that they don't belong in. Boxes are for storage and not a place for the things I love, (including myself).