Anita Lynch was far from your typical tween during her upbringing. At just the age of 10, she fell in love with technology because at the time her father worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP). Although he was in the sales department, he was encouraged by sales engineers to buy her a computer to learn how to code. Lynch was given a Radio Shack TRS-80, which resembles an electric typewriter, along with a book of programs to build her own creations. “That was my first real introduction to having independent thought and creativity,” Lynch shared with AfroTech. “‘Because I could change the color, the position, and make them walk out a certain way. It was just fascinating to me that I had the ability to do this on my own.” And the rest is history.