Melbourne children’s author Alex Miles is showing girls it’s cool to be a geek

With about 60 per cent of girls under 16 aspiring to stereotypically “female” jobs, Melbourne children's author Alex Miles - sister to comedian Andy Lee - wants her book series, Girl Gang Academy to help shift old attitudes, showing young women that tech is cool.

Author Alex Miles has written a series of books aimed at young girls to show them tech and science careers are cool too.

If you ask Alex Miles, being a geek is one of the best things a kid can be.

The Melbourne children’s author is the first to admit she’s one at heart, with a love of maths as well as the arts which informed her career as a writer from a young age.

Now 36, Miles (nee Lee) recalls her own childhood was full of creativity, of “running wild” through her cousins’ farm in Stanhope near Shepparton and camping with older brothers Cam and Andy.

All three have followed careers in the arts — Cam Lee is a digital designer and musician, while Andy Lee is a well-known comedian, one half of popular duo Hamish and Andy.

But Miles also remembers how confusing it was figuring out her own path in life.

“I know for me at school I loved maths. Maths and drama were my two favourite subjects which confused me because I was like surely they’re the two most opposite things?” she says.

Miles soon learned that it was OK and now she’s on a mission to change exactly how kids define being a “geek” and inspire them — particularly girls — to embrace diversity, especially through technology.

Miles has penned a new four-book series for the Girl Geek Academy, an Australian-based global movement run by a team of tech-savvy women encouraging girls to pursue their dreams and let their “inner geek” run free in the tech world.

In the Girl Geeks series, The Hackathon and Game On are out now, with two more titles due for release in October.

The books follow a “girl gang” of four vastly different pre-teens thrown together and tasked with solving problems at school and in life. They use technology, battle it out online and learn that being valued for your brains is cool.

Miles with sons George and Freddy.

It’s a message Miles wants every kid to hear.

“Our generation defined geek in a totally different way (but) technology is part of kids’ lives,” Miles says.

“And I think that can be a challenge at school knowing — am I the smart one or the sporty one?

“Hopefully what comes from these books is (that kids think) ‘I can be interested in this stuff but I can also be interested in lots of other stuff’.

“It’s not like you can only do one thing in life.”

But Miles’ biggest hope is that kids will read the books and relate.

“You could come to it with zero interest or knowledge of gaming or technology and still enjoy the books, and maybe come away with a bit of curiosity and with that feeling that they can be themselves.

“You can be a geek about anything … it’s not about the technology.

“Any kid is going to identify with … friendship things.”

She also hopes it will inspire some to step out of the box and look at careers in fields they might not have considered.

With about 60 per cent of girls under 16 aspiring to stereotypically “female” jobs, Miles wants her books’ girl gang to help shift old attitudes.

“One of the cool things that came out of it was the idea that technology is all about problem solving,” she says.

“It’s an industry that needs all types of people. You need creative people and the people who want to sit there and code, and the people out there selling it.

“I think as well with social media and with kids feeling like they need to have a brand or need to be able to sell themselves, and for kids that just don’t want to do that, it’s not that you don’t have anything to add or you’re not valuable. Even if you’re quiet, you still have something to say.”

Miles’ writing career started unknowingly at 17 when her first play was published by a teacher who saw her talent.

It then took almost three years after finishing university for her to land her first “real” job. But her perseverance paid off and she became a storyliner on popular TV soap Neighbours.

“It was great. You learnt how to have a thick skin and to not be too precious,” she says. “It was just the best learning ground.”

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The role set her on the writing path. She’s since published a number of works, including the Zac Power franchise under the pen-name H.I. Larry and the Starring Olive Black children’s series.

She’s also worked in theatre, television and advertising and is busy sharing her school-based program The Imagination Muscle, which uses creativity to teach kids they can read and write if they put their mind to it.

But being a mum to sons, George, 4, and Freddy, 20 months, is what always keeps her grounded.

She hopes they — and every other kid — will grow up knowing that the world is theirs.

“Whatever it is that gives you energy, just embrace it and enjoy it and don’t be ashamed of going full-ball into something you enjoy.”

THE HACKATHON AND GAME ON (PUFFIN,
RRP $14.99) ARE OUT NOW

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