"Yay! I also am all about the visibility. As I've learned from helping kids/young women and others in the field, you don't really know you're a role model... until you are one. And I think I would have found my love of making apps & games earlier if I'd had more, of course. Instead, it was everyone's boring dad doing computers (sorry friend's dad's growing up, but you understand). At a high school girl's programming camp the other day, one of them was like "are you a partier?" with this kind of shocked and amazed expressino... I had just finished the Black Eyed Peas FB app. And when I acknowledged, that yes, I did enjoy going out, etc. I seriously got this whole little posse around me. So just saying, while lurking may help you personally, there is a bit of karma give back out there." - anna sauce