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#ILookLikeAnEngineer smashes stereotypes in the tech industry

August 4, 2015 | By Jordan Valinsky

Isis Wenger started a revolution of the hashtag variety.

It all started when her face began appearing around San Francisco in a massive ad campaign for her employer, a tech company called OneLogin. Along with a picture of the 22-year-old, the ad features a quote on why she liked work there, reading “My team is great. Everyone is smart, creative and hilarious.”

The ads, however, drew backlash from jerks complaining that since she’s an attractive woman, she can’t possibly be a developer. “If their intention is to attract more women then [sic] it would have been a better to choose a picture with a warm, friendly smile rather than a sexy smirk,” complained one.

The reactions “illustrate solid examples of the sexism that plagues tech industry,” she wrote Saturday on Medium. “I’m sure that every other women and non-male identifying person in this field has a long list of mild to extreme personal offenses that they’ve had to tolerate.”

Irritated with the response, Wenger ended her post with the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer encouraging Twitter users to smash the misconception that engineers are white males.

The response has been overwhelming. Topsy measured 23,000 tweets — and growing — using the hashtag. Here are some of the most popular responses:

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