There’s a new throughline in the technology space online. A consistent, unifying theme that champions playfulness above sincerity, clunky nostalgia over sleek modernity and feminine charm over ubiquitous design.

From girlish hair accessories programmed with advanced electronics to adorable bag charms laced with technological innovation, these are just a few examples of the ways in which women on social media are using their background in coding, engineering and software development to create fun, functional and feminine designs—sharing it with thousands of loyal followers in the process.

But does this trend work to champion women in a male-dominated tech space, or instead inflate the narrative that female-centric design is inherently frivolous? And how do the women at the forefront of this online movement distinguish themselves from the noise of a saturated technological market?

Feminine Design Is Still Design

“It's just so fun to be able to treat technology as something that's functional but also cute and expressive,” said Tru Narla, a content creator who is currently using her background in software engineering to create a series of technologically enhanced bag charms.

Narla’s first completed design of the series, a digital camera inside of a 3D-printed flower-shaped shell—complete with a gold keyring for easy attachment to a purse, backpack or wallet—gained major traction online from viewers eager to follow along the creator’s process and get a peek at the final result.

“I think it makes tech feel more playful, expressive and personal instead of just purely utilitarian,” Narla said. “For a long time, a lot of consumer tech has been designed to look sleek, minimal and neutral, which also makes it feel cold and repetitive. Seeing electronics integrated into bag charms, accessories and other feminine-adjacent objects makes it feel more inviting and reflective of personal taste.”

With a polished, yet unfiltered editing style that shows Narla as she experiments with design, learns new skills and refines her technique, the creator’s platform works to champion women of all backgrounds who are interested in technology—never dumbing down concepts and instead encouraging her audience to expand on their own proficiencies no matter what level they are starting from.

“It shows that you can learn real technical skills, build ambitious projects and still have a strong aesthetic design,” Narla explained. “For me, making something playful or feminine doesn't make it less legitimate. It still takes time sitting there coding, problem-solving and iterating to bring these ideas to life. The visual language might be softer or more decorative but the work behind it is still real work.

“I think calling this kind of tech frivolous says more about how narrowly people define seriousness than about the projects themselves. Tech should be expansive enough to include different tastes/interests and forms of expression. It doesn't have to look austere to be innovative.”

Jenny Zhang, founder of the technology startup COMPUTER ANGEL and creator of a unique hair barrette/camera hybrid—a fashionably chunky white clip that seconds as a fully functioning video camera—not only seconds the notion that crafting these fun accessories are a valid use of time and resources, but explains the value-add to women-centered design, often solving problems ignored by male engineers.

“It’s not so much about tech trending more feminine, and more about designing tech that properly integrates into our lives,” Zhang said, “On the surface, [making bag charms] just looks like adding carabiners, but it’s actually form that enables function. Because when I can hang it on my bag, when it’s cute, when it represents me, I actually use it.”

Resenting The Urge To Optimize

Alongside the championing of women tech entrepreneurs contributing to the trend’s rise in popularity, there’s a reason why so many individuals are drawn to these clunky, nostalgic pieces of tech, rather than the streamlined styles that have dominated the industry and the personal lives of consumers over the past decade.

“I'm kind of exhausted with the culture of optimization,” said Emma Orhun, a former software engineer turned content creator, or, as she self-identifies, “internet artist,” who recently shared her "tamawatchi" online made from an Apple Watch body inside of a Tamagotchi shell.

“Everything now is streamlined,” she said. “There's always a new app... This one is quicker. This one is more organized. This one will solve all your problems. But back in the day, everything was so isolated. You didn't need one thing that promised to do all of it. And I think the fact that we carry around all of it in our pockets every day adds this mental weight, even though it's not physically there. Instead of having to carry around a camera, a radio, a phone, all of these things, we carry the mental load of being able to do all those things at all times.”

Offering even more merit to this argument, a recent article from Psychology Today identifies the concept of “betterment burnout” as the feeling of overwhelm and anxiety that many individuals become accustomed to when society favors personal growth and success as the ultimate goal of one’s life.

“This type of burnout occurs when the drive for self-improvement becomes overwhelming, leading to feelings of fatigue, frustration and a lack of fulfillment despite all the hard work,” the article states.

And, connecting the dots between the consumer desire for simplistic design and the heightened popularity of creators like Narla, Zhang and Orhun online, it’s easy to see how audiences’ exhaustion from the modern streamlined, sterile and perfectly optimized technological landscape has opened the door for female designers to experiment with shapes, colors and aesthetics—enthusiastically engaging viewers by solving problems, pushing boundaries and once again having fun with tech.

“Since everything is moving so quickly these days, it feels like there's this pressure for people to be the best at what they're doing,” said Orhun. “And that is not the point of it at all. The point is to create things for the sake of creating, for the sake of making beautiful things with what's accessible. And anyone who feels intimidated by it, don't be.”