Your Django Story: Meet Julia Elman

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Julia Elman is a designer, developer and tech education advocate based in North Carolina. She has been working her brand of web skills since 2002. Her first dive into Python was at World Online in Lawrence, Kansas in 2008, as a Junior Developer/Designer. In early 2013, she helped start a local chapter of Girl Develop It and empowered over 850 members to learn computer programming. She also helped organize the 2013 Teen Tech Camp, where 20 local teens learned Python programming in a one-day event. Julia is also the co-author of “Lightweight Django”, published by O’Reilly Media. You can follow her @juliaelman.

How did your story with code start?

Computers have been part of my life since I was a kid. At seven years old, I was introduced to Logo on an Apple 2E at my elementary school in Kansas. I learned how to play chess on the same machine and run basic math equations. I really think that this helped make me less intimidated about working with computers. From my playing “Discovery Math” on my Amiga 500 to then building my own games with Python, I can definitely see how the original path from Logo initiated my journey into a career in tech.

 

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

Art and nature. I’ve always had a knack for drawing, as well as a love for nature. My formal education is primarily in fine art, but I originally was focused on becoming a geologist.

 

What do you love the most about coding?

Making things that not only delight users, but that I am constantly able to keep perfecting. I believe that being a computer programmer is not a profession in which a project is ever really done. You are always trying to think of new ways to make your applications faster, easier to use and more overall efficient. I think that’s why I also like design. Always learning, always building.

 

Why Django?

In 2008, I met a few folks at SXSWi that mentioned a new web framework that they had been working with called Django. They worked at the Lawrence Journal-World in Lawrence, KS and said something to the effect of, “You live in Kansas City and you’ve never heard of Django?!?” Soon thereafter, I quit my job at Hallmark Cards to join the amazing team at the Lawrence Journal-World and learned Django.

While I can attribute being from Kansas as the primary reason for using Django, it is not something I see as the most logical of reasons for using a web framework. When I joined the team at the Lawrence Journal-World, web frameworks were still relatively new in web development. Having the ability to scaffold an entire site quickly became easier when using Django and I loved the ability to do so.

On another note, I like working with Django because of the people who are involved in the community. I have had the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented and caring people throughout my career in Django. I am proud of the work the community has done to help promote diversity in tech with not only PyLadies, but now Djangogirls too.

 

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Currently, I am working on wrapping up a book called “Lightweight Django” from O'Reilly Media. It’s been a year in the making and I am pretty thrilled to be able to see it hit the shelves in a few months.

 

What are you the most proud of?

I am most proud of my daughter. She is truly the light of my life and is my primary source in motivation for my career as a programmer.

 

What are you curious about?

I am curious about new ways of teaching Django and how else we can remove any barriers of entry to the framework. It’s important to think about this as we continue to grow the community and onboard new users.

 

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I do a lot of volunteer work with PyLadies RDU and Girl Develop It RDU. Both are organizations I helped found and am constantly working at new ways to grow communities for women in tech.

I also enjoy spending time with my family and friends, eating amazing food. playing video games and enjoying nature.

 

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Programming is hard, even for those of us who have been doing it for a long time. It’s about problem solving and the better you get at it, the harder the problems get. If you start feeling like, “Why don’t I get this? I should be understanding this faster?”; just know that we all feel like that at times and you are not alone.

Thanks Julia! :)

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