Entertainment
Girls Who Code Launches Digital Experience to Change the Future of Women in Gaming
In this culture-shifting campaign, “Girls Who Code Girls” invites users to code the characters they want to see in games
Last Updated on July 30, 2024 by Daily News Staff
In this culture-shifting campaign, “Girls Who Code Girls” invites users to code the characters they want to see in games
The experience, in partnership with Mojo Supermarket, celebrates Computer Science Education Week.
Visit www.girlswhocodegirls.com
NEW YORK /PRNewswire/ — Today, Girls Who Code, a nonprofit working to close the gender gap in tech, launched Girls Who Code Girls, a desktop and mobile gaming experience empowering girls to create personalized video game characters with code. Right now, 77% of video game developers are men and only 20% of all characters are women. The platform aims to disrupt this imbalance and challenge a gaming culture marked by misogyny by inspiring users of all backgrounds to envision a gaming experience that’s more reflective of themselves and their communities.
Girls Who Code Girls is a gaming experience empowering girls to create personalized video game characters with code.Tweet
Girls Who Code Girls was designed to celebrate the diversity of the Girls Who Code community while teaching computer science fundamentals. The experience provides infinite code-able combinations, from hair texture to skin specificity to body size, and coders will be able to code their avatars with unique and underrepresented attributes. The learnings from the experience will be collected and shared with the intention of impacting the future of female characters in games. The library of characters will also be licensable and offered to gaming companies to inform their game development.
“Though almost half of all gamers are women, we don’t see them represented in game development. As a result, what we do see is a gaming experience catered to the white, male gaze that alienates some of its most passionate and diverse fans,” said Tarika Barrett, CEO of Girls Who Code. “That’s why we created Girls Who Code Girls. By turning users into creators, we’re empowering our community to use coding to upend the status quo and imagine a future where they can harness their passion and creativity into a career in tech. We want our students to know that they deserve to take up space in gaming and game development, and can create characters that reflect the best parts of who they are.”
Mojo Supermarket – the creative company behind previous Girls Who Code campaigns including the Cannes Lions Award and Clio Award-winning Doja Code – partnered with an interactive production studio, Make Me Pulse, to make Girls Who Code Girls a reality.
“With Girls Who Code Girls, we set out to accomplish two goals. First, provide girls and young women with a fun, creative entry point to trying out code. And second, to draw attention to the fact that if more women coded video game characters they would look more like real women. Our ambition is that with every line of code you type you can influence the future of women in gaming.,” said Kate Carter, Group Creative Director, Mojo Supermarket. “We saw how much girls enjoyed DojaCode as an interactive experience, so we wanted to give them another fun one, while showing the world, and gaming companies, why it’s so important that we invest in getting more young women into the tech and gaming fields.”
HOW DOES GIRLS WHO CODE GIRLS WORK?
- Gamers visit GirlsWhoCodeGirls.com, where they can code and customize their own gaming characters.
- Users are introduced to four coding languages featured on the site.
- As the experience continues, users are guided through the process with clear instructions on what to input and how — making it easy and seamless for a beginner.
- Users watch as their characters change in real-time based on the coding alterations they have written.
- As the experience wraps, fans leave Girls Who Code Girls and share the characters they have coded and created.
“As a woman in STEM, I am so excited and humbled to be partnering with Girls who Code on this campaign,” said Ainul Md Razib, a software developer & tech influencer based in Singapore (@ainlovescode). “Our global community still has much work to do in boosting women and non-binary people in gaming. That’s why I believe Girls Who Code Girls is and will be a crucial piece to expanding the diversity of people in gaming for the long term!”
Girls Who Code Girls was created with generous support from Lyda Hill Philanthropies.
“We are proud to see another innovative way more perspectives are being incorporated into gaming that young people consume in the Girls Who Code Girls experience,” Nicole Small, CEO and President of Lyda Hill Philanthropies said. “Closing the gender gap in technology spaces like video game design means a more inclusive and inspiring world for the next generation of young women.”
To enter the gaming experience, go to www.girlswhocodegirls.com.
About Girls Who Code
Girls Who Code is an international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology, and leading the movement to inspire, educate, and equip students who identify as girls or nonbinary with the computing skills needed to pursue 21st-century opportunities. Since launching in 2012, Girls Who Code has reached 500,000 students through in-person and virtual programming, and 115,000 of our alumni are college or career-aged.
Girls Who Code has sparked culture change through marketing campaigns and advocacy efforts, generating 14 Billion engagements globally. In 2019, the organization was named the #1 Most Innovative Non-Profit on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list, and in 2022 was named one of NonProfit Times’ Best Nonprofits to Work For.
Follow the organization on social media @GirlsWhoCode.
About MojoSupermarket
Mojo Supermarket creates ideas that rewire how people think. We’re a creative company responsible for Girls Who Code’s DojaCode, Truth Initiative’s Depression Stick, Match’s Adults Date Better, and more. And while we love our brand clients, we also create our own passion projects including Give Her a Break and The Slavery Cup. We’ve been named Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year 2022, Ad Age’s Best Places to Work 2022, and a finalist for Adweek’s Breakthrough Agency of the Year 2022.
SOURCE Girls Who Code
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Sports
Chili’s Takes the ‘19th Hole’ Literally With Golf Course Pop-Up
Chili’s took the 19th-hole tradition to a new level with a limited-time golf course pop-up in Burbank featuring food, specialty margaritas and exclusive golf apparel.
BURBANK, Calif. — Chili’s Grill & Bar took its casual-dining game onto the golf course with a limited-time experience celebrating one of golf’s favorite traditions: the 19th hole.
The restaurant chain transformed the clubhouse at DeBell Golf Club in Burbank, California, into the Chili’s Golf Club, a two-day pop-up held Aug. 28–29. The event welcomed golfers and fans to enjoy Chili’s favorites, specialty drinks and a golf-inspired apparel collaboration.
The concept played off the traditional “19th hole” — the post-round gathering spot where golfers grab food and drinks, talk about the day’s round and, perhaps, make those missed putts sound a little closer than they actually were.
Chili’s Meets the Golf Course
Guests at DeBell could stop by after playing 18 holes — or simply visit the clubhouse — for Chili’s menu favorites such as the Triple Dipper. The pop-up also featured golf-themed drinks including the Transfusion Marg and Tee Time Marg, created specifically for the Chili’s Golf Club experience.
The promotion also teamed Chili’s with active-lifestyle apparel brand Rhoback for a limited-edition Rhoback X Chili’scollection featuring the Chili’s Golf Club crest. The lineup included performance polos, hoodies, quarter-zips, crewnecks and golf hats.
“Chili’s is the people’s clubhouse, so it only made sense to bring that spirit to the course,” George Felix, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of Brinker International, said in announcing the campaign.
Food, Golf and Entertainment Collide
Chili’s extended the promotion beyond the course with a campaign film celebrating everyday golfers — particularly those whose enthusiasm for the game may be considerably stronger than their scorecards.
The film featured appearances by Wesley Bryan, Caleb Pressley, Jena Sims Koepka, Chaz Bowker, Josh Kelley and JaNa Craig, bringing together golf, entertainment, food and lifestyle culture around the familiar 19th-hole tradition.
Although the Burbank pop-up lasted only two days, the campaign offers another example of restaurant brands looking beyond the dining room to connect food with sports, entertainment and fan culture.
For Chili’s, that meant finding a place where burgers, margaritas, golf stories and questionable scorecards already seemed like a natural fit.
Source
- Chili’s — “Chili’s is Fulfilling Every Golfer’s Dream by Opening on a Golf Course. Yes, Really.” — Original Aug. 26, 2026 press release announcing the Chili’s Golf Club promotion.
Related Links
- Chili’s Golf Club — Official Event Page — Details about the DeBell Golf Club takeover, food, specialty margaritas and Rhoback collaboration.
- DeBell Golf Club — Official Website — Information about the Burbank public golf course that hosted the Chili’s Golf Club.
- DeBell Golf Club — Golf Course Information — Background on the 18-hole, par-71 municipal course in the Verdugo Mountains.
- Rhoback X Chili’s Golf Club Collaboration — Rhoback’s official page covering the limited-edition golf apparel collaboration.
- Rhoback Official Website — More from the active-lifestyle apparel company involved in the Chili’s Golf Club campaign.
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Entertainment
M&M’S Brews Up ‘Practical Magic 2’ Movie Night Hype With Limited-Edition Amas Veritas Spell & Snack Packs
M&M’S is leaning hard into spooky-season nostalgia ahead of Practical Magic 2, teaming up with Warner Bros. Pictures on a limited-edition release designed for Halloween movie nights. The brand announced the M&M’S Amas Veritas Spell & Snack Pack, a collectible add-on built around the iconic “Amas Veritas” love charm from the original 1998 film—timed to the sequel’s theatrical release date: September 10, 2026 (in theaters only).
The pack features custom-designed M&M’S candies printed with eight whimsical symbols inspired by the original spell, plus an “extended verse” of four new symbols that the company says hint at mysteries in the sequel. The drop is positioned as part fan-service, part snackable merch—something you bring to a watch party, but also something collectors will want to grab before it disappears.
Availability is limited and online-only. The Spell & Snack Pack is offered exclusively atMMS.com/Practical-Magic as a gift with purchase when fans buy an M&M’S Milk Chocolate Fun Size Sharing Bag, while supplies last. In a nod to the film’s midnight vibe, there are two timed drops at 12:00 a.m. ET: September 3, 2026 and September 14, 2026.
To push the nostalgia even further, M&M’S is also partnering with actress Camilla Belle—who played young Sally Owens in the original film—to recreate her spell scene with an M&M’S twist in social content on Instagram and TikTok. For Halloween hosting, the brand also flagged seasonal staples rolling out nationwide, including its Fun Size Halloween Variety Pack and Halloween Blend options in both Milk Chocolate and Peanut.
Source
- PRNewswire / Mars, Incorporated press release (Sept. 2, 2026): “M&M’S® Brews Up Movie Night Magic This Halloween Season With Limited-Edition ‘Amas Veritas’ Spell & Snack Packs…”
Related links
- Limited-edition pack page: https://www.mms.com/Practical-Magic
- Mars, Incorporated: https://www.mars.com/
- M&M’S (main site): https://www.mms.com/
- Warner Bros. Pictures: https://www.warnerbros.com/
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Entertainment
Danica McKellar and Matthew Marsden Star in The Greatest Christmas Gift for Great American Pure Flix
Great American Media is kicking off the holiday season early with a new Great American Christmas Original. The company announced The Greatest Christmas Gift, starring Danica McKellar and Matthew Marsden, will make its World Premiere streaming first on Great American Pure Flix, before also airing on Great American Family and GFAM+. The title joins Great American Media’s sixth annual Great American Christmas slate—its signature seasonal programming block built around faith, family, and classic Christmas storytelling.
In the film, McKellar plays Emma Harper, a gifted music teacher preparing for a Christmas wedding to her fiancé Caleb Bennett (Marsden). But just as the couple is planning what should be a joyful small-town celebration, an unexpected setback threatens the future they’ve carefully built. As Christmas approaches, the story leans into a familiar but resonant holiday theme: the most meaningful gifts aren’t the ones wrapped under the tree, but the ones revealed through steadfast faith, selfless love, and a community that shows up when it matters most.
Bill Abbott, President and CEO of Great American Media, highlighted why McKellar remains a cornerstone of the network’s holiday brand, saying audiences trust her films to leave them “encouraged, uplifted, and inspired.” Abbott added that pairing McKellar with Marsden in The Greatest Christmas Gift reflects the company’s commitment to stories where “faith, family, and hope are at the center,” reinforcing Great American Media’s identity as a major entertainment player focused on faith-forward programming. The film is written by Summer Israel Johnson.
The Greatest Christmas Gift is positioned as another comfort-watch entry for viewers who want their holiday movies warm, sincere, and rooted in community—exactly the lane Great American Christmas has been building year after year. Keep an eye out for premiere-date details as Great American Pure Flix rolls out its holiday lineup.
Source (primary)
- PRNewswire / Great American Media press release (Aug. 20, 2026) — “Danica McKellar and Matthew Marsden to Star in The Greatest Christmas Gift…”
Related links
- Great American Pure Flix (streaming service): https://www.pureflix.com/
- Great American Family (network): https://www.greatamericanfamily.com/
- Great American Media (corporate / brand info): https://www.greatamericanmedia.com/
Related talent links
- Danica McKellar (IMDb): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001528/
- Matthew Marsden (IMDb): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0551128/
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