# #ChooseToChallenge: Taking the First Step

Today's article is a spontaneous one, suggested to me by the brilliant Hashnode team. The #ChooseToChallenge is an amazing initiative in celebration of International Women's Day 2021. But what's more amazing is that Hashnode decides to be a support pillar and lends their voice to celebrate women in tech and call out gender-bias in the tech ecosystem.

Find out more about the challenge here:
 - https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme

Visit the Hashnode page on it here:
- https://hashnode.com/iwd2021

## My Challenge

When I heard about this challenge, the first thing I worry about was how I am going to take a picture of myself and show it to the public. As most of you know, I'm too shy to show my face (look at my 2D profile pic) and immediately, I thought of my first reason to participate in this challenge.

Women are constantly judged and criticized for their appearances. When I was young, being good at mathematics, science or programming is not admirable *for a girl*. But being good at makeup does. Hence, I **#ChooseToChallenge** that. By picking up my phone, taking a selfie of my bare face and making that picture the cover image of today's article.

Another reason to challenge: there is gender imbalance in the STEM community. Women are discouraged from taking on careers in their field due to internal pressure from family and external societal expectations.

![image.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1614602701766/5KRcvvTyU.png)

I **#ChooseToChallenge** this imbalance. Not only by being a woman in tech, but also by being active in the tech/blogging community and using my platform to create value for both men and women equally.

## Final Words
Thanks Hashnode for this initiative and taking the first step to spread the awareness of social issues. I am inspired to do the same and wrote this article. If you read this article, I hope you will participate too. 

Thank you for reading, cheers!