Girls are often taught to avoid risk and failure. And that affects their lives and the lives of others.

“We’re taught to smile pretty, play it safe, get good grades. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to play rough, swing high, crawl to the top of the monkey bars, and then just jump off head first,” Reshma Saujani, founder/CEO of Girls Who Code, says in her TED talk, “Teach girls bravery not perfection.”

“We’re raising our girls to be perfect, and we’re raising our boys to be brave.”

Instead, if you teach girls to be brave, they’ll become more comfortable with imperfection. As a result, they’ll take chances, create new things, and end up building a better world.

Saujani will address CUNA’s 2019 America’s Credit Union Conference June 17-20 at the Walt Disney World Resort® in Florida.

Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization that works to close the gender gap in technology and, in the process, change the image of what a programmer looks like and does.

Through a summer immersion program, after-school clubs, books, and other specialized programming, Girls Who Code inspires, educates, and equips girls with the computing skills to pursue programming opportunities.

Saujani began her career as an attorney and activist, and in 2010 was the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. During her campaign, she visited local schools and saw the gender gap in computing classes firsthand. That led her to start Girls Who Code.