Lauren is Self-Motivated – and Self-Taught! 

After being introduced to Tynker on iPads at her school in Arizona, Lauren fell in love with coding! She sees it as a creative activity and considers it one of her biggest hobbies. The current fifth-grader took it upon herself to learn more, so she “worked on Dragon Spells a few times” and taught herself to code through experience.

Now, eleven-year-old Lauren aspires to become a programmer, but “before Tynker, I didn’t really know what [a programmer] was.” In her free time, Lauren loves coding (she hopes to invent her own device someday!) and rollerblading. She has a big family and even introduced her older sister to Tynker! We chatted with Lauren and learned a bit about why she loves to code, what inspires her, and what she likes to do!

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I didn’t really know what to say! I told my parents. They were proud!

What’s your favorite subject in school? I like social studies! I like to learn about what people do.

Why do you like to code? I like to see what happens; it’s cool to see what one thing does. I try to make it better every time!

How did you get introduced to Tynker? My teacher showed us Tynker and I enjoyed it a lot! I started using it a lot more.

How did you learn how to use Tynker? We all have our own iPad to use for school and one of the apps we had was Tynker, so whenever I got home I would explore on it and then I found out how to use it more.

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? There’s actually two, the one I just made, the Dragon Pet game, and a game I’m working on called Mama’s Pizzeria.

Dragon pet 1

What are you planning to make next? I’m not sure yet, but I want to fix up a couple things on the game I made. I want to improve it and put more activity into it!

How do you get inspiration for your projects? I have a sister, and we code together sometimes.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I think of another project, or I think of more ideas to put into it.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? My favorite thing that I like to do is to make projects. I like to draw, and I like to code and make the characters and do stuff like that.

Mama’s Pizzaria Demo

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yeah, it’s cool and I like what other people make! It’s neat.

How do you think learning coding now will help you in the future? I want to make things to help people! Something to help people learn.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah! It helps you learn more.

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? I would help people make a project.

Lauren’s mother Jenelle thinks it’s “cool and interesting” that Lauren is learning to code. “She loves video games and computers and everything.” Janelle thinks that wherever and however Lauren chooses to apply her skills, “it’s it’s good for her mind.” We agree – coding builds critical skills!

Janelle told us she “cares about Lauren’s education” and that Lauren has “always been a really good student.” We weren’t surprised when Janelle mentioned that “everyone’s always told me she’s incredibly smart, she’s always been creative.” Her projects definitely reflect her intellect and imagination!

Thanks for speaking with us, Lauren and Jenelle! We look forward to seeing how Lauren contributes to the Tynker community in the future.