Which software developer created the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag in 2015?

Software developer Isis Anchalee created the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag in 2015. She launched it after online comments questioned whether she was really an engineer because her face appeared in a OneLogin recruitment advertisement.

Anchalee posted a photograph of herself holding a message identifying her work and used the hashtag to challenge narrow stereotypes about who looks like an engineer. The campaign quickly became an example of hashtag activism, inviting engineers and students—especially people underrepresented in technology—to share their own identities and experiences.

The movement is sometimes confused with the people who helped organize its later public events or billboard campaign. Michelle Glauser, for example, organized a related community gathering and fundraising effort, while Erica Baker participated in the broader conversation. Neither fact changes the origin: Anchalee was the software developer who created the hashtag.

The campaign also inspired related identity-focused movements, including #ILookLikeASurgeon, which Heather Logghe started later in 2015.