Tynker Helps Yaamini Spread Her Message

Yaamini is eleven years old and is in 6th grade. She’s from Dallas, Texas, and enjoys reading and coding. We think her projects are incredibly inspiring, so we chatted with her to learn why she loves coding!

What’s your favorite subject in school? Math.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor. I find it really fun – I love helping people and making sure they’re alright. I have a passion for learning everything about the body. It just goes into my mind and it’s really fun for me.

How did you get introduced to Tynker? Actually, another person who’s featured, my friend Fatima, told me about Tynker. She was coding and I asked her what that was. She told me all about it. I started Tynkering, and I loved it.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? I do. I was actually hoping I’d get one of my projects featured. It’s really nice that you get to share all your projects, and if you have a message you want to share you can share it. It’s really nice.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? It’s the coding part – you can create whatever you want and you can make whatever you want. It’s all about your imagination.

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? Definitely my “What is Bullying?” one.

What inspired you to make that? Well, in my previous school I got bullied a lot. I wanted to help other people and tell them what to do when they’re bullied.

Is there anything you’re working on currently? I’m working on a global warming project. I’m trying to explain what global warming is, and how to stop it. In my science class, we’re starting a unit on energy and how to conserve it. I’m getting lots of information from my teacher. I love animals, and whenever I look at polar bears I just feel so sad that they’re suffering, so I want to really start working on it. I’m trying to reach out to other people and tell them what’s happening to them, and I’m also trying to tell them what could happen to us if global warming happens.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? If I feel like it’s one of my good projects I publish it. If I feel like there’s some other things I have to do – like maybe get someone else to check it – I usually get Fatima to check it, because she’s a really good coder.

Why do you like to code? I don’t know! I just love to – it’s like my own world. I get to control everything and I get to choose how I want it to be. I get to make sure it’s all going my way and I get to test it. If something’s wrong, it’s fun for me to figure out; it’s like challenging myself. If there’s something wrong, it makes me more determined to fix it.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yes, definitely. It’s so fun and you get to build whatever you want. It’s good to start coding early on because if you ever decide to take up a job that needs coding, you don’t want to start then because it’ll be harder to learn. If you start learning to code now, it’ll be easier.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? I’d say, learn to code. Go to lessons and learn, and start easy. Don’t go too hard on yourself.

Yaamini’s dad Guru was surprised by Yaamini’s interest in coding at first, but pleasantly so. He told us, “Last year she was more interested in literature, medicine, anatomy, and body parts – so we were very surprised to see that she was so interested in Tynker. She’s really enjoying coding, and I think that’s really good.” Guru thinks Tynker is a “fantastic platform” for kids to learn coding on because it’s “not just coding, but it’s also giving them an opportunity to learn other topics, and share what they know about other topics.”

We love how Yaamini uses Tynker to raise awareness about things she’s passionate about, and share her interests! Thanks for speaking with us, Yaamini and Guru. We can’t wait to see your global warming project – keep Tynkering!