The speaker initially felt that she didn't fit the mold of a Silicon Valley founder due to her gender and ethnicity. However, she realizes that this belief was unfounded and influenced by societal biases and lack of representation. She now understands that she was wrong in thinking that leadership and founders had a specific appearance.

There was a lot of parts of myself that I just wanted to hide because it didn't feel like it fit into what I thought Silicon Valley and entrepreneurship was.

I didn't think that founders looked like me.

I thought that I had tricked everyone into believing that I'm a founder, and actually I wasn't.

I had made up the story, and I'm sure I didn't do it by myself because it's systemic.

It starts with the representation that's being put in front of us.

It starts with the words that we use with boys and girls that are different in school.

And all of that fed to an image of what I thought leadership and founders looked like.

And again, at 18 years old, I didn't think it looked like me.

And I know now that I was completely wrong about it.


Speaker 0: There was a lot of parts of myself that I just wanted to hide because it didn't feel like it fit into what I thought Silicon Valley and entrepreneurship was. I didn't think that founders looked like me. It's as simple as that. I thought that I had tricked everyone into believing that I'm a founder, and actually I wasn't. And part of it is being a woman.

Part of it is being Asian. But it's just like, it's so not true. It was all in my head. I had made up the story, and I'm sure I didn't do it by myself because it's systemic. It starts when we're young.

It starts with the representation that's being put in front of us. It starts with the words that we use with boys and girls that are different in school. It's unconscious bias. And all of that fed to an image of what I thought leadership and founders looked like. And again, at 18 years old, I didn't think it looked like me.

And I know now that I was completely wrong about it.

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Tracy Young on the importance of representation and recognizing unconscious bias.