321Go!
Well hey y'all!
It's Ashley Renne and and welcome back to my sustainable travel, vegan lifestyle, and
smart tech YouTube channel where I show you how to live in adventurously green life and
today we have a very special YouTube video for you because I'm here with Kim from like
Tesla who you guys should all know if you love Tesla because she is the Tesla YouTube
queen.
And then we also have Alexi from owning a Tesla in the city and she is bomb on Twitter.
So make sure you go follow her on Twitter and of course subscribe toLlike Tesla.
If you haven't already.
These are amazing women and we're going to be tackling some really important topics today
in our video about women and sustainability, technology, Tesla, just so many great topics,
you're gonna have some parts in my video some parts in Kim's video.
Some parts and Alexi's video, so if you want the full scope of our entire conversation
you gotta go watch all the videos to hear our perspective on everything that we talked
about today.
So make sure you watch all the videos once we're done.
Now while Lexi, Kim, and I talked about a number of topics, I was most interested in
tackling why there is a lack of representation and diversity in the tech field.
So before we started talking I turned to Instagram and asked you guys to give your opinion on
why there is a lack of women in tech.
Yeah so I want you to answer the question because I really want your feedback to this
very important topic that we're discussing.
Here were some of your responses.
Some of you said sexism and discrimination, the awkward traveler pointed out that she
works in tech and is the only woman of color on her shift of 200 people.
That's interesting because women of the color make up 80% of all women led small businesses
in the US, but that figure drops to 4% in the tech field.
But most interesting were the responses that suggested that women just don’t want to
work in technology.
D-one45 said there aren’t enough applying for these jobs.
Evoto Rentals said maybe women just don’t like to code or program.
And Jharae said that women are scared to work in technology.
Rarely do you ever see women coming together and talking about Tesla, technology, and sustainability,
so in today’s video, Kim, Lexi, and I are addressing this important issue as well as
solutions to progressively and inclusively move this industry forward.
So one of the questions I actually have for both of you guys is what made you want to
share your journeys like why did you not just get a tesla, keep it to yourself?
Why did you want to share with people?
So I think for me it was a little bit just waiting for the model three I was so excited
I had all this pent up energy and I wanted to talk to everybody about Tesla I tried to
not overdo it with my family and friends to sort of scale back based on how interested
or not interested they were and try not to overdo it so they were sick of it.
And so I started listening to podcasts and following the Tesla Twitter community and
then I decided to jump in, like I wasn't a Twitter user before that really and I just
love the community on there and you can learn so much so I just started contributing and
pointing out what I've learned and learning a ton of from people and then it definitely
helped get me through that two plus year wait for the model three.
For me when I first started vlogging period, one of the first things I noticed was just
like the lack of representation period about like the various topics that I was addressing
when I started vlogging with Tesla, I realized that there was a lack of representation for
women and there was a lack of representation for people of color on getting this information
out there.
And so it was very important to me being a mixed race black and Indian woman to, you
know, not only be a spokesperson on behalf of women but also on behalf of people of color
to reach those communities that don't often see themselves reflected in the type of content.
That's why I love that, you know, Kim you have your YouTube channel and I love that
you were like the Twitter queen.
I love that as women.
We're just out here and getting those messages out so was very important to me to, you know,
represent this industry.
So why do you think like, why don't we see more women specifically.
That was one of the reasons why I wanted to hang out with you guys and how to make videos
is I really wanted to think about how we can inspire more women yeah yeah to be out there.
For sure.
Well, you know, when you think about technology and science in general, there's just a lack
of women in these fields in general.
So I think it starts at a young age, to be quite honest, I mean look at how we raise
our boys versus how we raise our girls and I remember when I was younger, going into
toy stores and there was such a stark difference between the boy toy aisle and the girl toy
aisle.
I feel like with with women you know when we're girls were what I like to call, we get
pinkified.
Right.
So we're taught to grow up to be princesses and right play with Barbies and makeup and
we play dress up, whereas boys, you know, they're taught to be edgy and, you know, playing
with Legos and build things and you know the studies have actually shown that there's such
a lack of spatial awareness with women like our spatial skills are undeveloped in comparison
to boys and that's because what they found is that people who grow up playing with like
construction type toys, their spatial skills are a lot more developed.
So if you think about the types of toys that we play with when we're younger, it starts
when we're kids.
So you go up, you know, as a girl not really wanting to conquer science and you know get
involved in technology because your skill set in that particular area is not even being
developed from a young age.
So it starts it starts with our kids.
Yeah you know if it naturally seems more difficult or harder, you're not going to want to do
that as much.
Absolutely.
I think people also think that we're just biological somehow inferior when it comes
to you know science and technology and engineering.
But that's absolutely not true.
It's just, it can be learned.
But we're just not in these fields and there's also sexism, a lot of sexism in these fields
as well.
So, you know, I don't think there's a whole lot of attraction for women to enter this
field and get involved in technology, when they're afraid of how they're going to be
treated in the workforce.
So then it's great when there are a couple people like us already in the fieldl, then
we can show that it's normal and fun to be in the field and then the younger people or
the people on the outside, watch that and it inspires them to join it.
Absolutely.
So it starts with representation.
I always like to go back to that, like we need more fearless women getting out there
and showing you know that technology is fun and showing that we are smart.
We do have something to say, our voices matter.
And I think it's really awesome that Tesla now has added its new chairman of the board
Robin Denholm.
So we have a woman there.
And then with SpaceX, the COO is a woman.
So we have, like, you know, Tesla, you know, making steps with that to have a woman out
there.
So I think that's that's really awesome to see that as role models too.
I do like that Ryan McCaffrey referred to Bonnie Norman as the matriarch of Tesla.
I love that.
Yes, and I agree with that.
And that's somebody I would love to meet and collaborate with as well.
Oh yeah, because she is awesome.
And so knowledgeable.
Yeah.
So if you're out there watching this.
Yes, please reach out collaboration is key.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, the more we we come together and we collectively raise our voices about these
topics.
I think the greater change reality, we're stronger together.
Yeah, right.
You know, I think there's a stereotype that women tend to compete versus collaborate.
But that's not the case at all.
I met some amazing women since I started my content creator influencer career like you
guys, Kim and Alexi you have been amazing and awesome and I think we definitely need
to work together more often to send this message.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
I tell you, everyone in the Tesla community that I have met so far it hasn't been a competitive
thing at all.
Everyone's like, just get the word out there do it spread it you know whatever avenue that
you like, you know, pick it do it and you know I've met just awesome people.
Now are there any women in particular that you want to shout out?
i Justine!
She needs a Tesla, she does.
I love her.
She has a huge channel, she's so fun to watch and her tech videos.
obviously she got iPhone.
Awesome.
Yes.
So good.
She's so knowledgeable.
Yeah, definitely her for me.
And there's Electric Jen.
Yeah.
She's great.
She's been around a long time with the Model S and yeah.
Chelsea Sexton I wanted to give you a shout out and I also wanted to give a shout out
to Leilani Muntor who, you know, drives Teslas, is a racecar driver and she is also vegan
so shout out to you guys, you are awesome and anybody else want to do some shout outs?
The Facebook page Tesla Divas is an amazing resource.
female Tesla is actually that and you can see that it's a women's only Facebook page
and it's called the Tesla team and it is so much fun.
It is possible pictures and share stories.
There's a lot going on there.
Yeah, and I don't want to give a shout out to Dr. Shelley Francis she actually reached
out to me.
This is a group that I just discovered a call the hybrid nor and their whole purpose is
to reach more diverse communities about electric cars and introduce you know this topic two
different communities and different groups of people that don't typically get this information.
So I think it's very important to have people like her in this industry and groups like
that, you know, really getting that message out there.
Yes.
And if there's anyone else but we are forgetting on this last put them in the comments below
because everybody deserves a shout out and so thank you for your favorite people who
blog about Tesla and technology, you know, people who are really bringing this information
to light.
We want to know.
and now time for coffee.
Coffee.
Coffee
I’m both hopeful and excited to see more diversity in this industry and
I’m grateful for women like Kim and Lexi for being apart of that progression.
As both a woman and a woman of color, I am especially thankful
to have a voice on this platform and want to give a big thank you to everyone who supports this channel.
To see the video of our entire conversation, head over to Like Tesla to watch the full video.
If you enjoyed THIS video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more sustainable travel,
lifestyle, and smart tech YouTube videos like this one.
Until next time y'all, I hope to see YOU at a supercharger somewhere.