The Next Generation of WordPress Users and Builders

Sophia:
Well here we are. My name is Sophia DeRosia. This is my co-host,

Allison:
Allison Dye.

Sophia:
Do you prefer Allison or Allie?

Allison:
Honestly, I go by both. I’m happy either way. Usually. Usually though because I have a common name, if there’s another Allison in the room that’s going by Allie, I’ll go by Allison instead.

Sophia:
No, that’s really fair. So for our first episode, I thought we would talk about who we are and why we have any business starting a podcast about the next generation, what makes us qualified to talk about our generation? So my history in WordPress started when I was five or so. Okay. I’m going to treat this like I’m talking to you because if I just start telling this story. So we’re going to pretend that we’re sitting down, and I’ve never told you this story before,

Allison:
Forgetting everything I ever knew.

Sophia:
Good, good. Okay. So I was about five years. I was little. I remember we have this picture of my sister and I in T-shirts that say, got root on it and all these different stuff. And that’s really one of the things that I think about when I think about my first exposure to WordPress. My dad had started going to Word camps in different tech conferences, and I just remember that was pre WordPress,. When did was WordPress officially founded? Like 2000?

Allison:
This says May 27th to 2003.

Sophia:
2003, okay. So WordPress was founded then. WordCamps must have started a couple years later. But once they started getting popular, my dad switched over from just basic web stuff because he was always a coder, so he could out started doing whatever. And then once he started going to WordCamps, I was getting old enough where I was like, whoa, you come back with beanbags and T-shirts and all this cool stuff and I want to go or I want to get cool. It’s super cool. So we had decided my mom was an English major and we were homeschooled. So for them it was a big deal to be able to teach us these skills. So when I was in about middle school, I was 10 or 11, there was a WordCamp Chicago, which isn’t too far from me, and my parents were like, cool, all right, we’ll do this family trip.

My mom had never gone to a WordCamp before either, but she blogged a lot when I was little and she’s always been very involved in all of it. And so my mom was like, all right, cool. If you want to go to this WordCamp, get T-shirts and all this cool stuff, you have to start your own blog. And so my dad sat down with us and we got into not fully nitty gritty, but enough we’re getting into themes and colors and hex coats and very basic design, but also some slight coding. And so that was a part of our school, essentially our computer class was learning how to write correctly and how to blog and how to do web design and stuff like that. And then later on in high school I started speaking at a couple word camps. We would go for fun, my parents would go eventually my parents got more involved in WordPress with their work. And so now I am taking my history of talking to people and design and marketing and all of these things and trying to find a job at 22. And it’s very exciting.

Allison:
That is exciting. And can I just backtrack for a second and say that I love that the thing that got you into WordPress was the T-shirts. It was like, I want a WordPress T-shirt

Sophia:
Specifically. I was told that at WordCamp Chicago, I think it was 2012, I was told that there were these little bags that had smiley faces on them and it was like a tote that would roll up into this little tiny smiley face thing. That was it specifically. And I was so excited.

Allison:
I love

Sophia:
It. I was like, dad, we have to go. And my dad was like, here, I’ve heard this is the good thing that’s going to be there. And I was like, oh my gosh, we have to do that.

Allison:
I love it. I love it. I was, well actually a lot older when I first was introduced to WordPress, my dad was actually originally a comms major. He was in radio and then he had started to do some website stuff on the side. And so he was doing web stuff before WordPress, and when WordPress came out, he was super excited about it and then he switched to doing that. So I remember growing up hearing about he would do websites for friends or organizations and stuff, and I heard WordPress was a pretty familiar term. I didn’t really know exactly what it was all about, but by the time I was 13, I’ve always had a passion for writing. And I think it was my mom’s idea for him to create me and my siblings some WordPress websites. So I remember him showing me some of the technical aspects of it, but being like, that’s a lot.

But what fascinated me was this place where you could put content and it wasn’t a public website, so I was able to produce content that only my family would read, but I ended up treating it almost like a journal. And it was so cool to have this little site that I could log into and talk about my day. And I had a childhood of being chronically ill. I still am. I have multiple sclerosis and migraine and functional neurological disorder and journaling through my growing up years. I always think of WordPress as that WordPress website being such a safe place for me to log in and put down everything that was going on to put words to what I was experiencing. And I loved being able to also search, go into the posts dashboard and search and read things from the past and all that. And so that’s how I got familiar with the dashboard and the backend of WordPress.

And that’s how I got started. And then thankfully I was lucky enough to get hired on a small WordPress agency for a time, and now I’m still working with clients and their WordPress websites and I’ve expanded to doing also social media and just, I love when there’s tools like social media, WordPress websites that are tools to give people that safe space in the large internet world where they can share their story with whoever they want because it was for me. So I get to continue to do that thanks to those skills that I learned when I was a teenager.

Sophia:
Yeah, it seems to be for both of us that the interest in WordPress just as a blanket term was just the freedom. We are the generation of, we were the iPad kids, we were given a thing and nobody knew how to use it and we knew how to use it in five seconds flat. And I feel like it was that same thing with a computer or a blog. We picked it up overnight because it was just very intuitive and we had those tiny little moldable brains, even in at 13 in high school, middle school, whatever. And for me anyway, being given that freedom was very empowering. I dunno, it made me feel like I could do anything. I could learn how to market, I could learn how to do social media web design. Not that I had to do those things, but I just did. It was just kind of a natural progression for me. Would you say that you felt similar?

Allison:
Yeah, I think it branched for me to learn so much. It was just a WordPress website, but I was able to learn so much. It branched out into learning more about digital communication, content creation, visuals, design. It does branch out into so many other things. I think while I find development and coding absolutely fascinating and I love the people who are able to do that, it gives you an appreciation for the things that maybe aren’t quite up your alley too. I appreciate all that stuff that happens in the backend and you get a basic understanding of all of that as well, which is huge. So I definitely think it branches out into learning so much more than just a website.

Sophia:
Well, and it’s so easy. It’s easy to connect with people and it’s easy to pick and choose. Nothing is hidden. Everything is fully open source. You can Google how to do this. For me, the struggle was always I would have this issue. I would be trying to get rid of a square or something that was in a theme. I remember one time I was a kid, even my dad couldn’t figure it out. So we Googled it, we found the thing, and it was you copy the thing and you put it in the thing and it still never worked. And I think it’s so funny how for some people it is just that you Google it, you copy it, you paste it, and it works. I swear that’s how all coders work. It’s how my dad’s brain works. But that also gives you that opportunity to find those friends and say like, Hey, I grew up copy and pasted. That’s all it said to do and it didn’t work. What am I missing? And then it’s like that built in learning opportunity. And it also gives you that freedom to say, Hey, when I copy and paste, it doesn’t work, but when you do it, it does work. So why don’t we work together?

Allison:
Absolutely. I think WordPress as a whole does well with community. I think there’s lots to improve with diversity, inclusion, et cetera. However it does teach you. I feel like it can teach you from a young age networking, you hear you are going to all these networking events, seeing grownups learn to network, and just from a young age you were able to watch all that, which is huge because some people don’t do that until they’re adults and then they’re at their first conference and they’re like, oh, what are we supposed to do? You know what I mean? So it does give that too. Yeah.

Sophia:
Have you been to a WordCamp? I don’t know that we’ve ever talked about this.

Allison:
I’ve never been to one. I have actually volunteered virtually for some ward camps, but I have never actually attended one.

Sophia:
Interesting. So for me, it did a couple things. It taught me how to communicate as a kid, but it also kind of broke that barrier between kid and adult.

Allison:
Interesting.

Sophia:
So I kind of just kept that child when you’re a kid and you’re at the playground and you go up to somebody and you’re like, oh my gosh, hi. We’re best friends now. I feel like I kept that because I was too young to have any social boundaries, I guess, which definitely backfired. But it was helpful the older I got to be. We have a similar background in that we both we’re communications people we like to write. You seem incredibly good at that. Did you learn any of those? I don’t know. How did you keep that freedom as you grew older? Did you gain any of those skills from WordPress is what I’m asking.

Allison:
Well, I don’t know if it’s directly WordPress, but I do think it comes from a similar, I was unschooled, so I think Me too. Yes. So I was unschooled, which most people are like, oh, you mean homeschooled? And it’s like, no, I definitely mean unschooled. That’s different. But that’s for a different episode.

Sophia:
Yeah, we’ll talk about that later.

Allison:
And basically, I think I did some formal education. My educational background is a bit varied, but I remember when I did do some years at a public school being like, why don’t the kids consider the teachers their friends as well as the kids? I was kind of taught from a young age. I wasn’t put into a class with only my peers and told, these are your only friends. I was taught from a young age, anyone can be your friend. And I saw my dad do that with people all over the world thanks to the WordPress community. So he had friends everywhere, different ages in different countries, sometimes speaking different languages, et cetera. And so I saw him making friends like that. My mom also grew up traveling everywhere, so she had friends everywhere. And so part of it was WordPress. Like I said, my dad had networked with people all over the world. And so I did see you can really connect with literally anyone if you want to. Can both communicate, then yeah, you can connect.

Sophia:
Yeah, I love that. So I feel like most people know about my background. My dad is Topher, everybody knows my dad. Do you want to tell me something about your background with your dad? It’s a really cool, I really love all of that, so I’d love to have you tell all about it.

Allison:
Yes. So like I said, my dad started out in radio. He’s always been super passionate about communications. So I mean, you see radio websites, that’s all kind of comes back down to communication, different forms. So communication. And I’m usually like, I’m Eric Dye’s daughter. Not everybody knows that, but he’s Eric Dye. He’s worked at some different WordPress agencies. He’s currently at Automattic on the Newspack team, and he loves it. He also previously had a kind of side business called DYECASTING, where he would do websites for friends, family, other organizations, small businesses, et cetera. And I’m kind of starting to get into that and kind of take over that, which it’s pretty exciting because I feel like WordPress does enable you to even have a business with services in a way that it’s a skill. It’s definitely a skill you can market. Okay, maybe we cut that for sure. I don’t know that it made completely sense. I don’t know that it made complete sense. Okay. Okay. So maybe we don’t cut it. But yeah, that’s like my dad started doing, I think a lot of blogging at first and then moved into, he had always been in doing websites. He was doing websites for friends and stuff before WordPress. So WordPress was then I remember him being super excited and WordPress was the thing the way.

Sophia:
Do you know why that is? Because my dad had that same thing.

Allison:
I mean, I think it was so much different and worked better than any previous thing.

Sophia:
What my dad said was, the thing was you had to do every individual step manually to create a website. And then with WordPress, it was a click of a button. Everything was made.

Allison:
Everything was done. And then there was themes and then plugins. It was so multifaceted, it was mind blowing. So he’s always worked doing websites for people like family, relatives, small businesses in town. And so he’s always done that my entire life. And so it’s really funny, sometimes even when my siblings were little, they’d be like, oh, does so-and-so have a website. I remember being like, oh, do they need a website? Because it was like, well, my dad makes them, so if you need a website, dad can make them. Which is pretty cool because I think as a kid it was like other kids would be like, wait, how does that work? It does seem so cool. But to me it was very normal. My dad does websites and he did that on the side even when he was working in radio. So it was kind of a side gig sometimes. Sometimes it was full-time gig. So yeah, that’s kind of the box story for that.

Sophia:
That’s so wild. I didn’t realize how similar our upbringing was. I

Allison:
Know. It was so cool. I remember

Sophia:
Probably never talked about this. Right,

Allison:
Exactly. It’s really cool. And I think it’s interesting as the new generation to see where WordPress started, where we, it’s going also to see, I’m always interested to see the young people in WordPress because there are a lot, I mean, the community is huge, but I really want to see where younger generations are going to take it as well. Yeah. I think that the companies and organizations that are going to make it in the future are the ones that are stopping to listen to our generation. There’s a lot of us. Oh yeah. We are very informed, educated, and we know how to work together and collaborate across social media and WordPress websites. And so I’m super curious to see what we’re going to do with this and where we’re going. And I hope that we can encounter some of those people on this podcast together and meet them and learn their stories too.

Sophia:
If anybody out there listening is a young person or has experience with young people or has any input, would like to be a guest, come chat with us. We would love to hear from you. Shoot Bob a message on Twitter or wherever he likes to hang out. I am eringoblog on Twitter. Sophia DeRosia on Instagram. Alison, you want to tell people where they can find you?

Allison:
Absolutely. So I am most active on Instagram. I’m Sono Allie, SONO, Allie, A-L-L-I-E, which is just Italian for, I’m Allie. And on LinkedIn, I am Allison Dye, so you can find me there as well. And I have a website. It’s allisondye.com. There’s not a lot there, but if you want to,

Sophia:
I also have a website that is eringoblog.org. There’s also nothing there. Yes, it’s been 12 different things in the last five years,

Allison:
But I love it. No, I’m actually hoping to redesign it. But isn’t that the life of someone with a WordPress website? Like, oh yeah, I’m planning to redesign and relaunch soon.

Sophia:
Or it’s always like, oh, I’m starting this service and I’m going to change it, and it’s all going to be this and it’s going to tell all of these things. And then five weeks later it’s like, well,

Allison:
Maybe not,

Sophia:
Or I could do this, or, oh, I have this thing going on, or whatever.

Allison:
It is such a flexible platform though. I think currently my main website is really just a WordPress version of Linktree is basically all that it is at this moment.

Sophia:
What is Linktree?

Allison:
Linktree is a, so here’s my social media expertise coming and I have all these tools. It’s just a link thing where you create a profile, you go in, you give them your links, and then you have this URL that has links to follow you on YouTube or Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, et cetera. Or you can put a link to an article you were featured in or whatever and put it in your bio. And at some point I was like, wait a minute. I know how to do WordPress. Why am I using Linktree though?

Sophia:
I love that.

Allison:
I just set up a WordPress looking version of Linktree basically is all that. My website is currently. But yeah, redesign hopefully soon. No, I’m just kidding.

Sophia:
It’ll come.

Allison:
Don’t come. Maybe in a few weeks. It goes in phases. It’ll be like, oh yeah, I should do that. But yeah, thank you so much for talking today with me.

Sophia:
Yeah, this was

Allison:
Really fun and for inviting me to do this with you. It’s very exciting and I hope that our listeners have enjoyed getting to know us a little bit and we want to get to know you guys too. So like she already said, we’d love to chat with you

Sophia:
Moving forward. We have couple, I have some very interesting topics in the works of five topics that just came out of this whole conversation. We need to talk about our childhood and our education. We need to talk about languages, clearly, communications, all of these things. Very excited. So lots of things

Allison:
Coming. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. And we also want to thank Bob for everything he’s doing. Thank you, Bob. You’re the best.

Sophia:
Captain Bob.