Become a Code Like A Girl Writer
Your Guide to Writing for Code Like a Girl, 2024 edition
Want to write for Code Like a Girl? Here’s everything you need to know to join our crew of witty and wonderful writers!
Topics & Themes
Code Like a Girl is a community with more than 46,000+ people engaged, sharing, exchanging ideas, and making their voices heard!
We are looking for stories by writers that:
- Technology: teach us about the latest thing you are working on
- Career & Academia: help women navigate the tech world
- Inspiration: encourage young women to pursue a career in tech
- Advice: help parents and teachers get young girls interested in technology
- Allyship: inform male allies how they can help
Tag it using Topics
Tag your stories by adding topics to them before you publish matters!
Medium suggests using at least one tag from the Explore page tag in your story — this is especially important if the story author is new to Medium or has very few followers. Missing or obscure tags can hurt how a story performs.
Code Like A Girl Topics
Code Like A Girl stories use a few specific tags to help organize the stories on our site.
Using the Programming topic will result in your story appearing in our Programming tab. Career Advice is in the Career Advice tab, and Leadership is in the Leadership Section.
The Editing Process
When submitting an article to Code Like A Girl, we want it to be its best version. From now on, we will only be accepting stories in draft form. This way, we can work with you on editing before publishing. We will also wait for a weekday to publish your article, as articles published on a weekday get significantly more views than those posted on the weekend.
Grammar
We may make minor grammatical and structural adjustments directly to the article to enhance its clarity and readability. We use Grammarly to assist us in this process and encourage you to use it before submitting your article. Our Grammarly tool is set to Canadian English. This might seem weird, but I am Canadian and, as such, decided to use Canadian 🇨🇦 English for our publication!
Private Notes
After you submit your article to us, please watch for private notes. We understand that your written work is essential and valuable to you. Therefore, we will provide a private note containing significant changes and suggestions. We kindly request your response to those before proceeding with publication.
You may also leave us private notes if you have questions or want advice on certain aspects of your articles. We are here to help you present your best possible work.
Formatting
Please always follow the Medium formatting guidelines.
Do Not Create Titles by Bolding
Please do not use Bold to create section headers like I just did above. It will give the article odd spacing. It is better to use the Medium title headers as below.
Medium Title Header
Please use the Medium Title headers instead. They remove the space between the title and the paragraph. The following article explains how to use the story editor to follow Medium formatting guidelines easily.
Choose a Great Picture
Images help to catch the eye of the reader both on Medium and social media. We always recommend you use a picture to enhance your article. You can use Medium’s option to find a good picture in the Unsplash repository or use your favourite picture repository. ALWAYS CREDIT your picture, even if you created it with AI or a tool like Canva.
Do you want to showcase ethnic and gender diversity? Read the piece below:
AI & GPT written articles
We prioritize authentic, personal, and compelling stories. Whether you’re sharing an inspiring experience, a technical guide, or a narrative that reflects your unique journey, we want to hear your voice.
While using AI tools for grammar and structure is fine, we strongly encourage you to write your articles yourself. Your perspective and personal touch are what make our content stand out.
We also recommend reviewing your article to avoid phrases that might make it sound overly AI-generated. This helps ensure your writing feels genuine and relatable. Here’s a great resource that outlines some phrases to avoid:
Code Like A Girl is Part of the Medium Boost Program
The Medium Boost Program allows selected Medium publishers to nominate stories for promotion to Medium readers. Code Like A Girl has been part of the Boost Program since October 2023 and can nominate up to 20 monthly articles to be boosted. This is an incredible opportunity for us to amplify the voices of female authors and help further our mission. I am genuinely excited about being part of the Boost program and its positive impact on our writers.
I have collected all the Code Like A Girl stories accepted into the boosting program in this list for your reference.
The article “Boostonomics: A Tale of Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs” outlines my journey and experiences with the program. It details how I evaluate stories for the Medium Boost Program. It’s essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the criteria and process I use to nominate stories for boosting. This insight will help you align your submissions with the proven successful standards.
Promote Your Stories
We encourage our authors to share their stories far and wide. We’ve noticed that authors who share their stories on personal social networks tend to receive more engagement in their pieces. Sharing with friends and family can help your article reach a wider audience.
We are doing our best to help amplify your voice by sharing your articles through our social channels, but the more you share in your network, the better. Here are some articles we have written to help you figure that out.
We also ask that you follow the publication. As we gain more followers on Medium, our visibility increases. Please ask your friends and family to follow us too, so we can amplify your voice together.
Note that the image above is clickable and will take you to the Code Like A Girl website so you can follow us. If you want to do this in your articles, follow the instructions below.
I identify as male. Can I write for Code Like a Girl?
Of course! We do accept your stories, but only if they are about allyship. We do not accept purely technical stories from those who identify as male. There are already many places on the internet for that. ;)
How do I start?
To become a writer for CodeLikeAGirl, email info@codelikeagirl.io with the link to your medium profile.
We believe in the power of diverse voices and unique perspectives. If you’re passionate about technology and would like to contribute your insights to our publication, we invite you to join our community of writers.
