American supermodel, entrepreneur and social icon? Who is she? You might have seen her on runways all over the world, in magazines, or even on Bravo’s Project Runway. She has a passion for technology and fashion. This lovely and inspiring individual is Karlie Kloss.
Karlie is a native Missourian who started her modeling career at the age of 13 when she was scouted walking around a mall. She has walked the runways for top designers–like Calivin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, and Versace– and for various shows during Fashion Week all over the world. She even walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show multiple times. Karlie is a global brand ambassador for Estee Lauder, as well as a spokeswoman for other brands like Dior, Versance, Adidas, Calvin Klien and Swarovski, and Carolina Herrera.
Around 2014, Karlie discovered her passion for technology. In an interview with Vogue, she was asked how she became interested in tech and her response was simple: she was curious about the “mysterious language” that built the technology that touched her everyday life. So in 2015, she launched “Kode with Klossy,” a program specifically for young women who are interested in computer engineering and want to learn to code. Kode with Klossy is a summer program for girls ages 13-18 that provides girls the opportunity to learn code with various softwares like Javascript, HTML, CSS and Ruby. These camps take place around the country: Austin, New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, Omaha, New Orleans, and Atlanta. At the camp, they learn to create apps that change their communities and the world for the better. According to Karlie Kloss, some of her scholars have won $50,000 in rewards from Hackathon, and others have earned scholarships from universities all over the country to study computer science. In addition to the coding skills these girls learn, they are also rewarded with a $1,000 scholarship from the program itself. As the founder of Kode with Klossy, Karlie has been recognized in TIME 100 for her philanthropic work, as well as on other covers that feature her organization. In her Vogue interview, Karlie was asked if she could change anything in the world, what would it be? Her response aligns with her feminist views: “I would give equal access to give education and opportunities to all girls and women around the world.”. She added that she believes feminism is when women support other women.
Since herVogue interview last year , Kloss has continued to promote feminism and support the young women who love to code and change the world.
Some fun facts about Karlie:
- She is 6’2 Birthday: August 3rd (SHE’S A LEO)
- She prefers baking over cooking
- Her favorite alcoholic beverage is a Mojito
- She is described as a BOSS by all her coders
- She is hyper competitive in board games
- LOVES COFFEE
- She has her own youtube channel thanks to the help of her friend Casey Nesitat, she wanted to be able to tell her own story directly from her to the audience.
- The best piece of advice she was ever given was, “Work hard, be humble, and always bring cookies.”