Black Panther's Letitia Wright is on a mission to get girls into tech

After playing a gadget whizz in blockbuster Black Panther, Letitia Wright has a new mission on her hands 
Bionic woman: actor Letitia Wright is on a mission to encourage more young girls to study and work in science and technology

Letitia Wright is all about good energy. The Black Panther star, 24, is taking a break from the big screen to take on something bigger — deconstructing the barriers that stop young people, particularly young women, pursuing careers in the science, technology, engineering and maths sectors (STEM).

“You’ve got to see it to be it,” says Wright, impassioned. “They’re fields that are dominated by males, but there are all these women doing amazing work.”

After Black Panther, in which she played Shuri, a martial artist with a flair for technology, she got “a flood of messages from people saying thank you for representing us. There’s been such a lack of exposure to young women in STEM subjects.”

So she’s doing something about it. Wright is currently working with the energy giant Shell on a campaign to spotlight the heroines working in STEM.

She recently shot a video in which she met four female students preparing for this year’s Shell Eco-marathon, a global competition for students to design, build and drive energy-efficient vehicles — a lean, green soapbox derby (the current record stands at 3,771km/l, which is equivalent to driving from London to Rome and back again on a litre of fuel).

It starts today and runs until Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

“A lot of the girls told me that STEM was how they found their confidence,” says Wright. “It’s what they’d always been meant to do, they just didn’t know.”

These girls buck the curve, as only 23 per cent of the STEM workforce in the UK is female.

“When you block out or marginalise a particular group of people it only hurts society,” Wright says. “Representation is incredibly important. It helps us more than harms us.”

This fits into her own narrative. She wants black people to be shown in more “positive” roles.

“Since I was 17 I’ve tried to break the mould of what we see on TV and film, especially as a young, black woman,,” she says. “I want to see something different. You have to ask the question — why not see me for this? Why not see me for this different role, this quirky character?”

Seeing is believing. In the Shell film, Wright meets Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, a social entrepreneur, co-founder of the STEMettes, and the youngest girl to ever pass A-level computing at 11 years old.

She’s the sort of example we need, says Wright. “I wanted to be a scientist, a biologist. I came out of it because I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t see myself, or anybody like me doing it. You think that’s too far a reach, it’s way ahead of what I can think of or do.”

Fortunately, acting turned out quite well. As well as the gadget-laden Shuri in Black Panther she plays a rebellious hacker in Ready Player One, and an avenging cybervictim in Black Mirror. Lots of tech roles, then.

“You don’t have to be a superhero to get into STEM. Look at Shuri in Black Panther — without the costume, she’s just an amazing young girl that loves creating and inventing stuff to shape her future and to move her culture forward.”

Does she see herself as a role model? “If I do, it’s not a burden. Technology, maths, it’s cool. To play characters that make people realise how cool that is, that’s cool too.”

Wright was born in Georgetown, Guyana. “Technology was not part of my life,” she says. “I had a TV. That was the most I was exposed to.” She moved to London with her mother, a teacher, at eight, and lived in Tottenham. “We had a SuperNintendo, which was my world of technology then. My first phone was a black and white Nokia with no colour, I played snake on it. I was 13. Now I have to tear myself away from my phone. I have to chuck that thing away and have a real conversation.”

She’s upgraded her tech since, and is currently taking driving lessons — but wants her first car to be “hydrogen powered”.

Does she have a million dollar idea? “I want to partner with people who can make the air clean. A huge air filter, that would be cool.” What would she make it out of? “Vibranium.”

Wright wants any future daughter to be able to choose anything she wants to be. “Believing in yourself is one obstacle. You’ve got to believe you’ve got something to bring. Everyone wants to do what we’re doing. I want to inspire people — and inspire people on my terms.”

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