I'm a self-taught front-end developer. I grew up in Melbourne, but Berlin has been home for over seven years.

Today in the modern world of the Web, we view websites on so many different sized devices. We use mobile phones & tablets & laptops & projectors & screen readers & and the list goes on! All of these devices vary greatly in size and screen resolution.

I always make sure that the site can be viewed correctly in different browsers (cross-browser), different operating systems (cross-platform) and different devices (cross-device), which requires careful planning on the side of the developer.

Both the devices and websites constantly update and change. The tools and techniques used to create the front end of a website change constantly so the developer needs to constantly be aware of how the field is developing.

Another thing that I always keep in mind, is that the web must be accessible to all. We must ensure that the websites perform well on slow internet connections, as well as be viewable by people with disabilities and that the layout works in various languages.

When I started learning to code, I was pretty overwhelmed by all the choice! I focussed on learning the fundamentals first and then I played around with React & Vue.js for a bit, I learnt about Styled Components and then tried out some Static Site Generators like Gatsby & Gridsome, and connected them to various CMS (Netlify CMS, Prismic, Forestry).

I love to learn but looking back I think it was too much for a newbie! I had a basic understanding of each, but it felt like it was all on the surface. I took some time and I thought about my passions: CSS, Animations, A11y, i18n, performance, reusable components, functional programming and most importantly an open and strong community.

I had started using TailwindCSS in a project and I fell in love with utility-first syntax, the TailwindCSS team is very active on Twitter and so I started to follow along as they update things, then test it out and build stuff just for the fun of it.

I also started using Gridsome & Vue.js more and more. I found the Vue.js docs and community of devs using it to be absolutely wonderful and inspiring. I really want to get better at Web Animations and performance so I’ve decided to focus on Vue.js & TailwindCSS for now, and I’m very happy with my choice.

In 2018, a conversation with a friend about the lack of diversity in his workplace’s Tech team lit a fire inside me. This got me thinking. I really loved IT in high school, I even went on to study it for a short time after graduating in 2004.

I remembered loving CSS and finding JavaScript challenging, so I started my journey there. I found an “Intro to JavaScript” workshop hosted online by a bootcamp, joined my first ever Zoom call and coded along like mad, it was brilliant! I was immediately hooked back in!

The more I researched the more free resources I found online, and got to work on my new goal with a big career change in mind. It’s been almost two years and I haven’t stopped coding. It’s been a HUGE challenge at times, but also incredibly rewarding, and it now feels like I won’t ever stop coding.