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Lyndsey Scott

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Lyndsey Scott
Scott in 2016, photographed by Lucas Traian.
Born (1984-12-07) December 7, 1984 (age 39)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Model, software developer
Years active2008–present[2]
Modeling information
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Hair colorDark brown
Eye colorDark brown
Websitehttp://www.lyndseyscott.com/

Lyndsey Scott is an American model and iOS mobile app software developer. She was the first African American to sign an exclusive runway contract with Calvin Klein,[3] and has worked for Gucci, Prada, and Victoria's Secret.

Besides modeling, Scott writes mobile apps for iOS devices, and mentors young women in computer programming. She has been credited for challenging the stereotypes about models and computer programmers.[4][5]

Early life

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Lyndsey Scott was born in 1984, and grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, as the eldest of four children.[6][7][8] Her father founded a home healthcare company after having been a programmer for the National Security Agency.[2][9] She practiced martial arts beginning at age nine, and earned a black belt in Taekwondo.[2][10]

Scott was bullied as a teenager. She reported she was the only Black person for three years at Newark Academy, the New Jersey preparatory high school she attended, and so thin – 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) and 80 pounds (36 kg) – that she was called a "monster".[5][2] She states peers would invite then uninvite her from parties, and tell her she couldn't sit with them in the dining room.[11] "It got so bad in high school I couldn't even look people in the face. I would hide out in school so I wouldn't have to eat lunch in the cafeteria or see people in between classes."[1]

Scott studied theatre, economics, and physics at Amherst College, before taking computer science. She ran and did high jump for the Amherst track and field team, earning All-America status for the 400 meter dash. In 2006, she graduated from undergrad with a joint degree in theatre and computer science.[2][12][6]

Modeling

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Scott being made up
Scott with her hair being combed

After college, Scott was more interested in acting than computer science, and began pursuing auditions in New York City. Her body had changed in college, partly due to taking weight-gain supplements, and she says she "started looking more like a model".[13][2] She applied for modeling work with the encouragement of friends, but, for two years, was always rejected. Her parents urged her to take computer science jobs.[2][13]

However, Scott had posted her picture on the website Models.com, and in 2008, she was contacted by Click Model Management of New York City.[10][14][15] Elle Girl featured her in a video including her Click new model training.[16] At the time, she was 24, which was considered old for a model.[17] The agency asked her to lie about her age,[2][6] and for her first few years modeling, she claimed to have been born in 1990.[14][18]

Even with an agency contract, Scott wasn't immediately successful. In early 2009 Scott's work was handing out flyers on a street corner when she got a call from fashion house Calvin Klein.[2][11] That February, during New York Fashion Week (NYFW), she became the first Black model to sign an exclusive runway contract with Calvin Klein.[19] Bethann Hardison said that no model in recent history had made such an impact.[18]

Other prestigious modeling jobs followed: in her first years as a model, she modeled for Vera Wang, DKNY, Baby Phat, Fendi, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and the 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and appeared in the magazines Italian Elle, Teen Vogue, and W.[14] Style.com listed her as a top 10 newcomer.[20] In the 2010 fall NYFW, she was the only black model walking runways for Prada.[21] She also changed agencies to Elite Model Management, which was more accepting of her actual age.[14][2]

In 2013, Scott's programming skills drew attention from various media outlets. She was covered as the model with a secret identity as a coder.[22][23] Publications credited her with disproving the stereotypes that fashion models had no brains.[4][5] Fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar asked her to report on the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.[24][25]

Computer programming

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Scott started programming at the age of 12, by writing games for her TI-89 graphing calculator and sharing them with friends in middle school.[13] She learned Java and C++ programming languages and MIPS architecture at Amherst College, and taught herself skills she used for writing applications in Python and Objective C on the iOS platform.[1][26]

Scott has dedicated herself to educating young women on how to program. She maintains a profile on Stack Overflow, a website where users gain reputation for providing answers about computer programming. In early 2014, she was one of the top 2% of users with over 2.000 reputation points and more than 38.000 profile views.[2] She was the top ranked user for iOS questions on the site for one month in 2015.[27] As of February 2022, she has over 36,000 reputation points with over 400 answers to user questions and is in the top 1% of users on the platform.[28]

She was a representative for Code.org's second Hour of Code learning initiative,[29] made a video teaching programming with Disney's Frozen characters,[30] and is a mentor at Girls Who Code, an organization teaching programming to teenage girls.[31] She has given talks on programming at schools in Harlem and NYU,[32] and mentored Girl Scouts in programming in Los Angeles.[33]

Her combination of modeling and coding is seen as inspirational to young women. She was a keynote speaker for the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business in 2014,[34] and a presenter for the Ford Freedom Awards in 2015.[35]

Applications

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Scott's earliest iOS mobile apps were written on her own, for Standable, Inc., the company she founded in 2011.[8] Scott's first published app was Educate! in support of a non-profit also called Educate!, supporting young Ugandan scholars, and founded by two Amherst students.[36] Her second was iPort, intended to help models organize their career portfolio digitally.[1] Scott says she developed iPort because it was a tool she personally needed, as her paper portfolio books were heavy and falling apart.[5] Code Made Cool, released in conjunction with Scott's 2014 appearance on the cover of Asos magazine, was an iPhone app that taught girls programming via drag and drop in fantasy scenarios with animated pictures of Ryan Gosling.[37]

Lyndsey currently works as the lead iOS software engineer at NGO fundraiser Rallybound, where she builds iOS fundraising apps for various non-profit organizations.[38]

In 2022, she announced the launch of the Lynsey Scott Coding+ Scholarship, which is geared towards LGBTQIA+, women, and/or BIPOC students who are majoring in computer science.[39]

Personal life

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In 2016, Scott was sued by a man who leased her Roosevelt Island apartment through Airbnb, who claimed the apartment was dilapidated and the area unsafe; Scott said the posted photos, descriptions and reviews were verifiable and accurate. The case was dismissed.[40]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Khorram, Yasmin (January 21, 2014). "She's a beauty and a geek: Supermodel is a coder". CNN. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Brumfitt, Stuart (April 26, 2014). "From underwear to software: meet Lyndsey Scott, the model with a geeky secret". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  3. ^ Lim, James (20 February 2009). "Lyndsey Scott: First Black Model to Score Calvin Exclusive". The Cut. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  4. ^ a b Le, Vanna. "Meet Lyndsey Scott: Model, Actress And App Developer". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  5. ^ a b c d Martin, Michel (March 20, 2014). "Lyndsey Scott: Runway Model And Tech Programmer". NPR. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  6. ^ a b c DeAmicis, Carmel (January 2, 2014). "From coding to the catwalk: This high fashion model has a secret double life". PandoDaily. Retrieved 27 July 2017. Also online at Huffington Post.
  7. ^ Shore, Rebecca (January 22, 2014). "Casting Call: Lyndsey Scott". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  8. ^ a b Duke, Katherine (Spring 2014). "The Beauty of Coding". Amherst Magazine. Amherst College. Retrieved 27 July 2017. Also online at Issuu.
  9. ^ "Moses Scott Obituary". The Star-Ledger. March 19, 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  10. ^ a b Rao, Priya (December 11, 2009). "This Week's Model: Lyndsey Scott". W. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  11. ^ a b de Bertodano, Helena (July 10, 2017). "Lyndsey Scott, the top model who codes in the bath". The Times. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  12. ^ "Amherst College Athletics: Track & Field: Amherst Women Second, Men Third at Little III's". Amherst College. April 18, 2004. Archived from the original on 20 September 2006. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  13. ^ a b c Russell, Kyle (January 2, 2014). "Lyndsey Scott, A Model And Coder". Business Insider. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  14. ^ a b c d "Lyndsey Scott - Fashion Model - Profile on New York Magazine". New York. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  15. ^ "Lyndsey Scott - Model Profile - Photos & latest news". Models.com. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  16. ^ "Cool Jobs: Fashion Model - YouTube". ELLEgirl. YouTube. May 5, 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  17. ^ Lefebvre, Claire (December 9, 2014). "Lyndsey Scott - Un cerveau et des stilettos". Paris Match (in French). Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  18. ^ a b Williams, Tia (April 7, 2010). "Model Behavior: Fresh-Faced Lyndsey Scott". Essence. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  19. ^ Lim, James (February 20, 2009). "Lyndsey Scott: First Black Model to Score Calvin Exclusive". New York. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  20. ^ Leader, Romney (October 2009). "Style.com's Spring 2010 Top Ten New Faces". Style.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  21. ^ O'Neil, Megan (September 24, 2010). "Great Scott". Elle. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  22. ^ Friedlander, Ruthie (January 6, 2014). "Meet the Model That Knows How to Code - Lyndsey Scott Model". Elle. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  23. ^ "Victoria's Secret Model Lyndsey Scott Is A Secret Coding Genius". Oyster. January 8, 2014. Archived from the original on 30 January 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  24. ^ Scott, Lyndsey (June 6, 2014). "What to Know from Apple's Latest Tech Conference - Apple New OS System Yosemite". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  25. ^ Shriver, Maria (August 12, 2014). "Apps I Live By: Model & Coder Lyndsey Scott". NBCNews.com. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  26. ^ "Lyndsey Scott: The Runway Coder". Yale Daily News. March 28, 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  27. ^ "Empowering the Next Generation: History Becomes HERStory". New York University Tandon School of Engineering. March 16, 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  28. ^ "User Lyndsey Scott". Stack Overflow. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  29. ^ Code.org (December 9, 2014). "Hour of Code Video Chat with Lyndsey Scott". YouTube. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  30. ^ "Code.org Releases 'Frozen' Hour of Code Tutorial". The Walt Disney Company. November 20, 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  31. ^ Geek chic: Model who dreams in code - BBC News, 11 March 2014, retrieved 2023-04-29
  32. ^ Vagelatos, Alexa (March 3, 2015). "Model Lyndsey Scott talks tech with female students". AM New York. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  33. ^ "#CodingIcon: Lyndsey Scott - Actress, Model, App Developer". Jewelbots Inc. 12 September 2017. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  34. ^ "Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Intercollegiate Business Convention: October 18 – College of Management Undergraduate Program Office". 15 September 2014. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  35. ^ "17th Annual Ford Freedom Award Celebrates Technopreneurs: Builders of the Innovation Economy". Ford Motor Company. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  36. ^ "ACTRESS AND PROFESSIONAL CODER, LYNDSEY SCOTT, FUNDS $10,000 SCHOLARSHIP FOR YOUNG CODERS". bold.org. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  37. ^ * Kim, Eun Kyung (April 3, 2014). "Victoria's Secret model Lyndsey Scott's passion? Computer programming". Today. Retrieved July 27, 2017. Also online at NBC News and The Grio.
  38. ^ "iOS Developer/Model Shuts Down Trolls Who Didn't Believe She Could Code". iDrop News. 2018-09-11. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  39. ^ "Lyndsey Scott Coding+ Scholarship". bold.org. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  40. ^ Marsh, Julia (August 30, 2016). "Bnb renter duped into paying $9K for dingy apartment: suit". New York Post. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
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