Kids are the key to true diversity in our industry, says Kim Swift

"I hope that there's a little girl out there that sees me and thinks to herself, 'Oh look! Girls make games too.'"

- Kim Swift, the renowned video game designer best known for creating Portal, believes that the best way to introduce diversity into the video games industry is to teach kids that anyone can make games. Kids are receptive to all sorts of ideas, she says in a rallying blog post on her website, and therefore can be shown from an early age that their hopes and dreams -- including those about making video games for a living -- can come true. "A grown adult isn't going to change their mind about their inherent beliefs or their personality because someone gave them the stink eye (or an Internet reaming)," Swift adds. "Kids however are impressionable and full of those innocent hopes and dreams that may one day turn into reality." "When I blather endlessly about a game I'm working on until my eyes bleed, in the back of my head, I hope that there’s a little girl out there that realizes her dreams are achievable." Says Swift, she doesn't believe that the lack of diversity in the video game industry can be solved in a year, or even five. Rather, she reasons that over the next twenty years, as these impressionable kids all grow up, that's when we'll really begin to see change. Swift's thoughts come in the wake of the highly inspirational Twitter hashtag #1ReasonWhy, which just over a month ago exposed sexism in game industry.