Alexandra Gallant-Lee

Artist, Cartoonist, Designer, Science Communicator

How to Learn to Code in Ten Easy Steps While Planning a Trip to Paris and Influencing People

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Project Dates

This comic was the recipient of a 2023 MICE Mini Grant. 28 pages and in full color, How to Learn to Code in Ten Easy Steps While Planning a Trip to Paris and Influencing People tells the story of when a sexist computer teacher tried to discourage me from learning to code and build websites when I was in high school. I didn’t listen and decided to teach myself instead. It’s a story of believing in yourself and living your dreams, all to spite one guy.

Overview

Many years ago, when I was in high school, I asked a computer skills teacher for advice on learning how to build websites. He made the mistake of telling me that “coding wasn’t for girls”, so I decided to show him he was wrong and I spent the school year teaching myself how to build websites.

This is a story from my life that I had been telling people for years, it is part of what motivated me to become a designer. I had always known I wanted to tell the story in a visual way, but struggled to figure out how to do that.

In August 2023, I made a four panel comic that was the simplified version of what had happened and people on social media really responded to it, in a way that surprised me. I had made the comic on a whim, but something about the style worked for me and I was able to quickly put together this 28 page comic. It is the first longer sequential comic I have done, which made it such a surprise and a real honor when the comic was the recipient of a Mini-Grant from the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) in 2023.

A few of the details...

The cover of a computer, an old Apple with the title of the comic and my name.
The cover of the comic, featuring an illustration of the computer I learned how to type on.

Take a look...

These are a few of the pages from the comic, including the original four panel comic that sparked the longer comic I created.