“It’s important to me that I use my platform and my voice to help break the stigma that you have to be a math or engineering wiz to be interested in technology and code.” – Karlie Kloss.
At 25 years old, Karlie Kloss — the current face of brands including Adidas, Express, L’Oréal Paris and Swarovski — is a veteran model, make that supermodel. She has walked every major runway, from Marc Jacobs to Victoria’s Secret, and has been featured on the covers of 38 issues off Vogue.
Following the lead of entrepreneurial models that have come before her — including her close friend, Christy Turlington, who launched a non-profit in 2010 — Kloss has built on her success in the industry by tackling a variety of outside business ventures: In 2012, after becoming known for regularly gifting homemade cookies to stylists and editors including Anna Wintour, she started charitable cookie line Klossies with Manhattan-based Momofuku Milk Bar. Since, she debuted YouTube channel Klossy, providing an up-close look at her day-to-day to nearly 700,000 subscribers. In December, she premiered a talk show with Freeform, “Movie Night With Karlie Kloss,” hosting guests including Gigi Hadid and Ruby Rose.
In an effort to create a level playing field, she launched Kode With Klossy, an organization that arms women with the tools they need to enter the tech world.
What started as a free summer coding camp became a powerful network uniting women in tech. Now it awards career scholarships to young female developers and touts itself as a national community. Kode With Klossy’s success proves what we’ve known all along: When women support each other, incredible things can happen.
The program started accepting applications for its 2018 program, made up of 50 camps across 25 cities, four times the size of its last session. It also announced that, in collaboration with Teach for America, it will introduce a teacher training program to ensure computer science education is being taught year-round.
You can read more about Karlie’s entrepreneurial efforts here.
Read her complete interview about how social media has influenced the modeling industry and about the importance of women in tech on glossy.co.
