I'm Divine, a 13 year old self-taught frontend web developer very passionate about programming and suddenly interested in JavaScript 🤔.

Like I said above, I'm a self-taught web developer and I would love to share how I got here with you guys and I hope this will encourage anyone interested in the tech space to work hard no matter your age. ❤️

So, in 2018, my big brother introduced me to the world of programming at the age of 10 (pretty early right? 😅), Well at that time he told me to go online and research about programming and see if I'm interested in learning JavaScript and I said "ok!" But after searching for JavaScript online and seeing the confusing "texts" there, I gave up. I gave my big brother an excuse that I'd prefer Python so he let me go. Guess what I did after that? Given the opportunity, I played games with my mom's phone (I was using hers at that time), watched movies, played on Instagram and Facebook etc. In conclusion, I wasted my time and resources online.

So, fast forward to 2020 (I'm 12) the start of the pandemic, 23rd March 2020 - I was to start my 2nd term exams on that day and when I got to school we were told to go on an indefinite break. So, I got back into my Mom's car and we drove to her office. On the way there, I was thinking of what to do with the long break, and after some time I decided to call my brother. I told him about the break and he asked me if I knew what Udemy was (of course I didn't), so I googled it and told him my answer. He told me to search for Python courses online and that he would buy one for me. After a 12 year old me saw an opportunity to have access to a laptop, I quickly searched for one of the courses on Udemy and this is how my programming journey began. I was pretty slow at first because I finished an 8 hour course in three months, but I can't lie tho, the journey was amazing.

After learning Python, I don't know why I chose web design, but I started making small websites with drag and drop website builders e.g WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, Simdiv etc. I was so proficient with WordPress and Elementor, which is why people started hiring me when I was 12 years old (late 2020) to build for them websites. I had so much passion for it, to the extent that I learnt more than my teacher from Youtube 😅. And now, I build WordPress websites for him. And in July 2020, I applied for the Enugu SME Hackathon (first in my state), and I came 2nd position out of over 500 applicants where I presented Teen Coding Hub, an academy that teaches teens from the ages of 9-17 the fundamentals of programming, I also applied for the Enugu Tech Program in order to learn web development but I was not selected. After this I chose to learn about programming websites and not just using drag and drop builders. I bought a course on Udemy, and was taught the basics of web development (without JavaScript), 'cause I was so afraid of JavaScript and it's complexity 😬. I heard people saying it was extremely difficult which was why I preferred to learn just HTML and CSS thinking it could land me a great job.

After that, school started in October 2020 and I had to drop programming 🥺. And in January 2021, they were running the Enugu Tech Program and so I applied again and this time, I got in! 💃. The program started in April 2021 to July 2021, where I was finally introduced to JavaScript. We were not taught everything but they gave me the basics, after which I got a mentor who has been helping me through my journey 💪. After this program I was set to write my Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) and again, I had to drop programming. After my exams on the 6th of September 2021, I started building projects with whatever resources I had and uploading them to Github. I joined #TechTwitter community and so far it has been amazing. During this short break I have been able to finally learn JavaScript and I am moving on to ReactJs! I am currently participating in the #100DaysOfCode challenge and so far, it has been really productive. I was able to finish a 10 hour course on JavaScript in a week+ compared to when I started learning programming 😁. I am currently building my portfolio along with school and hopefully I will land a job as a front-end web developer by next year! P.S - I have my own web design company called Glavids Designs 😉.

And of course, all of this could not have been possible without everyone who have helped me in my journey so far. Thank you all and thank you for reading up till this point. Till I write again ❤️ Divine.

Would you mind giving me a follow on Instagram and Twitter ? You can check my LinkedIn and Github profiles too 😁.