Do everything with love
This is the motto I live my life by. We only have 100 years to live (if we’re so lucky!) and I’m doing what I can to make the most of mine.
These posts about Life contain my thoughts on life, motherhood, and the world outside of business hours.
Posts about Life
Young Entrepreneurs Plan for Global Change at the G20 YEA Summit in Fukuoka
As a Canadian delegate at the G20 YEA Summit 2019, I brought Canadian perspectives to the global stage and learned a lot about the state of innovation in Japan and around the world.
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First Impressions of Japan – Three Days in Tokyo
Growing up in North America, I had a skewed vision of Japan. It seemed that every time it came up, it was portrayed as colourful, fast, extreme, shocking, and futuristic. When I was selected to be part of the G20 YEA Summit in Fukuoka this year, I knew I had to stop in to see…
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Toronto Hackers & Capital One ‘Use Digital For Good’ to Support Canadian Charities
Capital One’s Gift the Code hackathon saw over two hundred Toronto developers join together for a 48-hour hackathon – but instead of competing for a top prize, these 34 teams were competing to build the best solutions for Canadian charities.
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Founding a Startup Amidst Loss and Grief
Around this time last year, I wrote a post called On Working While Grieving. It feels like an eternity ago, because so much has changed; yet here I find myself again, writing a post about loss and commitment. The last time I wrote was in April, and I haven’t had the gusto to write again…
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Goodbye, Microsoft! My Next Chapter
For the last four years Microsoft has been my world, my launchpad, and my home. When I first started, I was an eager young university student developing Windows 8.1 apps, and Trendy Techie was still mostly a fashion blog. My mentors and experiences at Microsoft helped to craft me into the person I am today,…
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Reflections on my Two Week Digital Detox
This past December I did something I haven’t done in years: I took a full two-week digital detox. As soon as my vacation started I deleted all my social media apps from my phone, left my laptops and tablets at home, and boarded a flight to Orlando. What I learned during my time away from…
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On Working While Grieving
I feel I’ve awoken from a hibernation of sorts. In January of this year my beloved grandmother passed away, and I experienced significant loss for the first time. I’m fortunate to have made it 23 years before losing close family, and I’m sad that my younger cousins didn’t have the same years with her that…
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VRTO 2017 – Highlights from Toronto’s Virtual Reality Convention
Sci-fi authors and futurologists have long dreamed of environments and entire worlds existing purely in virtuality – and for the first time in history, technology has caught up to that dream. From June 24-26, 2017, the VRTO Virtual Reality Toronto convention brought hundreds of VR aficionados to Toronto to discuss the future of our reality in the virtual…
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Inside Seattle’s Historic Underground Walking Tour
20 feet beneath the Seattle we know lie the remnants of the city as it used to be. Back in the days of horse-drawn carriages, Seattle was more rough-and-tumble than rock-and-roll. The old city flooded, burned down, and washed away and, as tides rode, the citizens of old Seattle took on a daunting task: raising…
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Dynamic Design Duo Anton & Irene Get Real About Work Life Balance – VR Interview
World-renowned design duo Anton and Irene quit their day jobs and started their own design studio. Now they travel the world and pursue the passion projects they’ve always wanted to create. Watch the interview in 360 or VR!
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The Fashion Week Incident that Made Me Stop Writing About Fashion
When I launched Trendy Techie in 2013, it was first and foremost a fashion blog. But then I went to fashion week and everything changed.
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This Week in Toronto Tech – Data Science, Women in Tech, Bots, and HoloLens
In the life of a Technical Evangelist, there is no such thing as a typical day. Every single day is different. Sometimes I meet with colleagues at the Microsoft Canada HQ, sometimes I code in coffee shops, and sometimes I speak on stages or in lecture halls around the country. This week I spoke at four…
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Why I Will Not Withdraw from the Women in Tech Panel at Shopify
Let me start by saying I do not support Breitbart, I do not support the Trump presidency, and I do not support Shopify maintaining its relationship with Breitbart, nor do I endorse the unfortunate and amoral comments about free speech made by Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lütke. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk…
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2016 in Review: the Year Everything Changed
Last year, I said that 2015 was a year of healing, and 2014 was the hardest year of my life. Looking back on 2016, I’m going to label it the year of change. Change is constant, and the only thing that is constant is change. If you’re not changing, you’re not growing, and if you’re…
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Why Choosing Dalhousie Computer Science was the Best Decision of my Student Career
After five years at Dalhousie University, I finally crossed the stage for convocation! This last half a decade has been an incredible, life-shaping adventure of growth and self-discovery, and I am so grateful to everyone who contributed to it. Choosing Dalhousie Computer Science was the best decision of my student career. I remember when my…
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Minister Bains Meets with Youth Entrepreneurs to Advise Canada’s Innovation Agenda
This Wednesday, August 31, I had the honour of being one of eleven young entrepreneurs to participate in an intimate roundtable discussion with Hon. Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development. Hosted by Startup Canada in partnership with Ladies Learning Code, this discussion was initiated to provide youth input into Canada’s Innovation Agenda, with a…
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Trendy Techie, Tech Evangelist
I am very excited to announce that, as of today, I am joining Microsoft Canada as a Tech Evangelist! For the last 16 months I have been a Content Developer at Microsoft Learning Experiences, creating online training courses on edX.org for developers around the world. I joined LeX in 2015 after my year-long internship as a…
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We Are Wearables Toronto Wearable Tech Celebration
When someone says they’re going to a wearables meetup, you probably picture a dozen or so people sitting around a table comparing fitness bands, right? Well that’s not how we do it in Toronto! Last week’s We Are Wearables meetup boasted over 800 attendees and 20 exhibitors, as well as a lineup of fireside chats featuring…
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My Last Summer in Halifax
Five years ago I was packing up my life to move to Halifax for university; now I’m packing up once again to move back home to Toronto. When I started my degree I had no idea how much would happen during my five years in the Maritimes. I turned my passion into my career, found…
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Trendy Techie Meets Prime Minister Trudeau
On June 1, 2016, I had the incredible honour of being one of eight young Canadians to attend a private meeting at Parliament Hill with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and COO of Instagram Marne Levine. It is such a rare opportunity for a young person to share her honest opinions about a country with its leader, and I am truly honoured to have been invited to this discussion.
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Late Spring in Seattle: A Rainy Day at Pike Place
Seattle is my favourite city. It’s the perfect blend of west coast chill and big-city bustle, and, while I love working on Microsoft’s Redmond campus, I relish the free time I have to explore on my own. On my most recent trip I spent a rainy day sightseeing Seattle’s Pike Place Market and got a…
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TRENDY TECHIE 