Things about me

Recent years

The past 8 years I have worked as a product manager and front-end developer, which kindled my love and interest for User Experience. During that time I often attended dev focused meetups and often ended up being the only female attendant. It was this experience that motivated me back in 2017 to found a community called women.code(be) (pronounced as womendotcodebe).

I was lucky enough to find a partner in crime and together we made it our mission to create a space and opportunities where our members can network with fellow peers, train their public speaking skills and gain inspiration and confidence. This is done via a variety of initiatives such as our TechTalks & network events, by offering portfolio & resume reviews, monthly interviews on our blog and a community newsletter. Secondly, we hope to create a positive impact on the Belgian tech scene in order to retain more women in tech.

Occasionally, I also volunteer as co-organiser at Fronteers, a community for front-end developers in the Netherlands and Belgium.

I already feel like a learned a ton by spending time on organising meetups and events, reaching out to people and building a community step by step.

Early years

My fascination for design and tech have been around from a young age. I always liked seeing what I could do on my parents first computer, like doing my homework, fidgeting around in CorelDRAW and discovering a whole new world through videogames.

As a child I also had a certain flair for creative things, things such as crafting, doodling, storytelling, coming up with 1001 different ways to build lego fortresses... And growing up, all that hasn't change much. I think my studies and hobbies reflect that pretty well.

My health

As mentioned on my homepage I am hearing impaired, meaning that I have lost the ability to hear certain frequencies; making it rather difficult to follow most conversations. I get by by wearing hearing aids, which already helps a lot, but is far from perfect. The detoriation of my hearing is a direct result of an illness called Ménière's Disease.

It is most likely that a traumatic experience in my past has "awakened" this disease in my late 20s.

Work environment

As a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), who's struggling with the symptoms of Meniere's Disease on a daily basis, it has become very difficult for me to work in a busy office and a high-paced environment.

I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, but rather believe that my skills and experience could be most beneficial when used to help others. Hence, why I am building a community such as womendotcodebe. Environments such as a non-profit, a community or something similar, are where I can do my best work.