This morning, the Mozilla Toronto community space is packed full of fired-up girls aged 11 to 14. Their mission: spend the next week learning how to hack with Mozilla.

Local entrepreneur and Mozilla community member Heather Payne is the driving force behind the “Girls Learning Code” camp, springboarding from her hugely popular Ladies Learning Code web development workshops.

The kids will spend the week learning about HTML and the basics of webmaking, using Mozilla Hackasaurus and other tools to get started.

Tackling the gender divide in tech

Heather says it’s the only just-for-girls camp of its kind in Toronto. The goal: get more girls interested in tech.

“I don’t want them to see coding as nerdy and geeky. I want them to see it as cool and empowering.” –Heather Payne

Or as The Toronto Star put it:

“While men may rule the technology industry, there are no boys allowed at Girls Learning Code…. Women only represent 22 per cent of the natural sciences and engineering workforce, according to a Research Council of Canada 2010 report. Despite efforts by alliances such as Canadian Women in Technology, that proportion has increased just 2.2 per cent since 1994.”

Building a more web literate planet

“We need a more web literate planet. Part of that is getting more and more kids to learn how to code,” Mark Surman, Mozilla’s executive director, told the Star.

Interested in learning more about the Girls Learning Code camp — or how to host your own?

• Check out the Mozilla Hackasaurus event kit for hosting your own youth hack jam
• Attend tomorrow’s Mozilla Webmaker community call to hear from Heather and some of the participants to hear how it’s going
• Check out the Ladies Learning  Code blog to learn more about the mentors behind the project