Hello Bezlo: Science, fashion and coding for girls

18 Nov 2015

A Kickstarter campaign supporting a fashion line of STEM-themed outfits for little girls has branched out into coding, with Hello Bezlo marrying science, clothing and programming.

Hello Bezlo is a kidswear company co-founded by Irishwoman Clodagh Connell, who noticed how hard it was to find clothing for her niece, whose interests like rocket ships, coding and science were rather unrepresented in the female section of stores.

It seems most clothing with iconography relating to these major themes was heavily focused on boys, with a gap in the market apparent from the get-go.

This is something we looked at before, with the worrying pink/blue trend of children’s toys no doubt furthering the chasm between the genders when it comes to employment levels across burgeoning industries like STEM in both Ireland and the rest of the world. This is something easily remedied, actually.

“My niece loves the outdoors and nature but still loves to wear her tutu, rock a cape and let her spirit take flight,” said Connell, whose Kickstarter campaign finishes up in a week.

“She defines the girl we’re designing for. She isn’t a girlie girl or a tomboy. There was no word to describe her, so I had to invent one: ‘Bezlo’. She’s a Bezlo Girl.”

Connell entered Startup Weekend Education and won, and with the backing of a co-founder she is now creating a social media site for kids that teaches them how to code.

The thought process behind Hello Bezlo has led Connell into a partnership with CoderDojo at the Dublin HQ of Zalando this weekend. There, the fashion line’s launch party will merge fashion and technology together: ‘Bezlo Style’.

Women Invent is Silicon Republic’s campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. It has been running since March 2013, and is kindly supported by Intel, Open Eir (formerly Eircom Wholesale), Fidelity Investments, Accenture and CoderDojo.

Girl with a rocket ship image, via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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