Meet the 10-year-olds breaking the glass ceiling and inspiring other girls to get into STEM

Earlier this year, when most kids were still struggling to adjust their lives to the new normal, 10-year-old twins Zara and Zenubia Khan were busy building apps! They became the two youngest people to earn the coveted Microsoft Power Platform certification after they built apps on the platform. 

This Children’s Day (Oct 1), theAsianparent spoke to them about their love for technology and what sparked this interest.

We also caught up with their proud dad, Adeel Khan, who shared some great parenting tricks and how he helped inspire his daughters to achieve their dream.  

It all started with an office meeting 

Zara and Zenubia’s journey to becoming the youngest recipients of the coveted Microsoft Power Platform certification began when they overheard their dad Adeel’s conversation during his office meeting. 

During this work from home meeting, he frequently spoke about a tool called Microsoft Power Platform. 

Curiosity and a desire to learn –which is already a quality the girls possess – took over them. Naturally, they were intrigued about this new tool and wanted to learn more. 

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As a Microsoft specialist, Adeel first introduced his daughters to Microsoft Learn, which led them to develop their first Microsoft Power Platform app, an expense tracker that reads data from an Excel spreadsheet and helps users create a budget.

He noticed how passionate his girls were about exploring new things and their efforts in learning about Power Platform. This motivated him to set aside some time to guide them on their journey and help them discover the power of technology democratisation. 

He also shared Power Platform Labs and Challenges with them, a set of learning resources about Microsoft Power Platform and its solutions for building apps, designing workflows, connecting data, and displaying the results.

“We used this to self-learn and eventually study for the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification exam,” the girls told theAsianparent. 

The girls focused on building apps as a solution to real-world problems 

Zara and Zenubia analysed the problems faced by their loved ones and thought of ways technology could help to address them.

“We were inspired to do more with Power Apps, and leverage it as a tool to build apps as solutions to real-world problems faced by the people around us and our community.

''In addition, our mother motivated us to pick up skills outside our daily routine, which enabled us to help others while providing us with the opportunity to learn more at the same time,” the girls share.  

It also gave them the idea to work on other apps, like a book reviews app and peanut allergy app for their friends. 

They had limited access to social media till the age of 10

The girls were given limited access to technology and social media till they turned 10. They were instead, encouraged to read and acquire knowledge from books.

“This also helped minimise distractions and allowed us to ideate freely. Through this, we were able to explore imaginative play to discover the world around us and found it easier to pick up new things and skills,” note Zara and Zenubia. 

So, when eventually their parents introduced them to the world of technology, they were able to quickly learn it. 

“Both of our parents have always encouraged us to learn new skills and technology was an obvious choice for us,” the girls share. 

Zara and Zenubia want to help more girls adopt STEM

The girls found that the current STEM sector workforce consists of only 20-30 per cent females.

“Most of our classmates and friends at school were not familiar with technology in this aspect, we became determined and inspired to embark on a mission to help more girls adopt STEM and technology,” they said. 

“As we explore Power Apps among other technologies moving forward, we hope that our story will inspire more young females to take that first step in discovering technology and eventually get involved in STEM,” Zara and Zenubia noted. 

A balance between learning and playing 

On a usual weekday, like any student the girls are also busy with their studies. 

“Math and integrated studies are our favourite subjects, and we strive to get better at them,” say Zara and Zenubia. 

But when studies are not keeping them busy, they love to spend time expanding their knowledge of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and AI. 

Adeel and his wife often keep a close eye on their daughters’ activities and make sure they maintain a good balance between learning and playing by taking regular breaks. Other than developing apps, the girls also enjoy physical activities such as cycling, riding the scooter and swimming. 

They are not afraid of failure

As parents, Adeel said that both he and his wife make it a point to create a positive learning environment for the girls and that has helped them embrace experimentation.

“It was all about moving away from the fear of failure to taking risks and learning from their mistakes to be better,” he told us. 

In fact, when his kids were learning Power Platform, as an expert himself, he rarely offered immediate help. This was to help stimulate their ability to learn and bounce back from their own mistakes.

“We always encouraged them to take a break before working on their project again and gave them space to figure it out for themselves,” shares the proud dad.

The future of learning is here and spearheaded by fearless leaders like Zara and Zenubia

Zara and Zenubia are now working to enable more people to use the Power Platform. They further hope to inspire people across the globe that regardless of age and gender, learning should never stop!

The girls have a message for all the grown-ups, who want to get into coding and create their own apps, but may be hesitant.

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“Never be afraid to take that first step in discovering new things or picking up a different skill. Even if you have slight failures in the beginning, don‘t worry. You’ll improve as you move on. Don’t give up!” shared Zara and Zenubia.

Adeel concludes by saying, “As a parent, it is important to create a conducive learning environment and let your children create their own journey. It is important to know when to offer help, and encourage them when they are exploring something new or picking up a new skill.” 

So, next time when someone says to you “Technology is not for girls,” tell them what Zara and Zenubia are doing - the girls that defied odds and carved a niche for themselves! 

As for Children’s Day, the twins share that this day has always been special for their family.

“In the past, we used to celebrate this day by distributing gifts to families, but with the Covid-19 restrictions, we plan to spend the day this year developing a tutorial for children on how to use Azure Machine Learning tools. It will be a great day full of what we love to do most!” the two sign off.  

This article was first published in theAsianparent.