Isabella Codes on the Runway!

Isabella Codes on the Runway!

Isabella is our multi-talented Featured Maker that loves to dance, draw, sing, game, and code! She is nine years old and her favorite subject is art: “It’s really satisfying when you make a good drawing and I guess it’s just fun!”

Isabella codes from England and wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up! To add to her list of talents, Isabella also plays the piano and the violin! To discover more about her love for coding along with all the other things she loves to do, we spoke with Isabella and her mom, Julia!

How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding?  There was this evening when my parents were watching TV and my brother was playing this game, AKA Tynker, and I was looking at what he was playing and I just noticed, and then I started to play it. I’m actually not sure about how long I’ve been coding, maybe a few months.

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? At first I didn’t make very good projects because I didn’t have an account yet, so I used my brother’s account a little bit and I did some of the tutorials. My favorite, I think it was the kaleido!

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? At first I was really surprised! I didn’t actually notice at first but I guess I just noticed at the end. My coding projects aren’t very advanced, they’re easy to code, but I had no idea it had gotten featured!

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? Well, I have multiple projects that I like, so maybe the “Winky Face Dressup” one where there are loads of dresses and you can just drag them onto the model. I like drawing the dresses and I think they look really good!

“Winky Face Dressup”

Where did you get the idea for your favorite project? I just like dress-up games! You just get the idea sometimes, I just wanted to make a new project and I wanted to draw!  

Why do you like to code? I guess I just like to because you can make your own games because on the App store on the iPads I search for games a lot of times and I can’t find many good games that are suitable for my age. So, I just started to make my own games!

Do you have a favorite code block? I often use “Broadcast” when I’m writing stories and stuff. I’ve still got a lot projects that I need to work on.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I just publish it once it’s completely done and if there’s something wrong in it I fix it and if I think it should be better I add stuff to it.

What are you planning to make next? I think it’s going to be the schoolgirl stories one, the game, but it’s going to be really confusing. It took a lot of time to code!

“School Girl Stories Beginning”

What’s the best thing about Tynker? I quite like drawing things because you have a lot of colors and I think the colors are really suitable.

How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? I’ve always wanted to become famous because of my designing and art. If I do then I might want to make a game, a good game, that can be played by me and other gamers. There’s not really a game that I really, really like.

Do you think other kids should try coding? I think they should because some of my friends don’t do coding and I think it would be a great skill to have. My class in England, most of them don’t really do coding that much because they never talk about it at school.  

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? I think they should try out some of the Tynker games that you learn from like Space Cadet and Dragon Spells! They should use some of the tutorials as well. When I first started I wanted to create a really good game but then I looked at other people’s projects and they used some tutorials, so I started using tutorials too and it helped!

Julia, Isabella’s mom, told us how she felt about Isabella learning to code and seeing the projects she makes: “I think she really enjoys it! It is a good game and it is different from other games because other games you only play, less creative, but this one helps them think logically, to make things happen. It’s really good!” Julia likes to give Isabella time to code when she can, especially during vacation from school. “Because it’s holiday time, she likes to spend more time on coding.”

Julia explained the benefits of coding for kids: “I think they can think about things step by step, it’s really good for them. They need to achieve one target but they don’t think into the details, but Tynker can help them with the details and the steps to achieve the target.”

Thank you, Isabella and Julia, for taking the time to speak with us! We can’t wait to see what Isabella thinks of next!