Sophie Houser & Andrea Gonzales
Sophie Houser is a nineteen year old New Yorker who suffered from serious period shame until age 16. That summer she learned to code at a Girls Who Code summer program. As her final project she co-created a game, Tampon Run, with Andrea Gonzales to break down the menstrual taboo in society. It went viral, throwing her into the limelight of the press, the public and the tech world. In addition to coding and talking about her period, Sophie also enjoys laughing with her friends, wearing socks with interesting patterns and photoshopping funny scenes. She is pursuing all of these passions as well as many more at Brown University and beyond.
Andrea Gonzales is an 18-year old high school student, hailing from New York City. The summer before her freshman year of high school, Andy started learning to code—ever since then, she’s been passionate about computer science and women in STEM. When Andy went to Girls Who Code, she learned the power of working around other girls, and that manifested itself in the video game, Tampon Run. Tampon Run’s success exceeded all expectations, and Andy was thrown into a world outside of her high school. Beyond her passion for computer science, Andy is a music, comic book, and video game enthusiast. She looks forward to continuing her education at University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) as a Robertson Scholar and remaining an active advocate for women in computer science.
Sophie Houser and Andrea Gonzales met at a Girls Who Code summer coding program in 2014. Although one wore Adidas and the other wore Doc Martens, they were able to put their footwear differences aside for the final project of the program. The two teamed up and created Tampon Run, a game to combat the stigma around menstruation. The game went viral and threw them into the limelight of the press, the public and the tech world. Sophie, now 19, goes to Brown University and enjoys laughing with her friends, wearing socks with interesting patterns and photoshopping funny scenes. Andy, now 18, goes to University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and is passionate about music, comic books, and video games. When Sophie and Andy are together, you’ll often find them eating blocks of mozzarella cheese and scrolling through Google images of pizza (this is not a joke).
