Cyberdeck building: Women lead a fashion-forward retro-inspired tech trend
If you’ve been scrolling through Instagram or TikTok recently you may have run into a unique and growing trend of young women using purses, Polly Pocket toys and 3-D printed hearts to create colorful Mp3 players, digital cameras and portable computers.
Known online as the Cyberdeck trend, women throughout the country are creating the personalized computers from scratch. By developing tech skills online, these content creators are showing young girls that tech and science technology, engineering arts and mathematic (STEAM) careers are accessible and can be customized to fit their interests.
Tru Narla, software engineer and content creator, has been involved in tech since she was a teenager. Originally fascinated by computer science and art, she has recently found her way to external hardware creations.
As a move away from the gray rectangular box design that has dominated mainstream tech, Narla and other tech creators have chosen to embrace a fun, feminine, retro-futuristic inspired redesign of classic technology. The designs have taken Narla back to the days when she first fell in love with technology by watching Totally Spies, a Cartoon Network animated show that embraces fashion and stylish spyware.
“I want to bring joy back to the world with cute little tech.” Narla said. “This cyber deck trend brought a bunch of women into the hardware space, because they were like, ‘Oh, we can make computers, but make them pretty,’ and I think that’s awesome.”
Savita Raj, CEO of Techbridge Girls, a nonprofit encouraging girls of color interested in STEAM education, says in order for tech to become more accessible she will have the girls in the program take apart a hair dryer, figure out the motor and redesign it.
“How do you make technology interesting, accessible, and relevant for girls? Because girls won’t just do tech or play with it because it’s there, they need to do that because it makes a difference in their lives or in the lives of their community, so that has been the foundation of TechGirls, and that’s how we operate to this day,” said Raj.
The disparity between women in tech and STEAM careers is not subtle. In the United States, 28% of computing roles are held by women and only 2.3% of total venture capital funding goes to all-female founding teams, even though female-founded companies deliver 2.5 times more revenue per dollar invested, according to WomenHack.
As a computer engineer, Narla said she was often the only woman in the room at her job. Narla said she would often downplay her femininity in order to fit in these male-dominated spaces. During her first relationship, she said her then-boyfriend even pushed her to view the few other women in her field as competitors.
“It’s hard to be in that environment,” Narla said. “I feel like I’ve never really done stuff too in tune with my feminine side, and I also never, when I worked in tech, gave my opinions on anything, because it would get shut down immediately.”
Narla has been participating in the women in STEAM community for more than two and a half years. She said the STEAM community is made up of cool and creative women with amazing ideas, and they often share and guide each other on specific tools.
In her content, Narla said she enjoys breaking down tech into pieces and showcasing the trials and tribulations of building hardware. Overall, Narla said she creates content that could have been helpful to her when she was younger and would have inspired her to build more.
Since leaning into a more female-oriented style of hardware building, her audience has shifted from being 80% male to a 50/50 gender split.
Raj said it’s essential for girls and women to see themselves as people who not only belong in STEAM careers but are also its creators and founders. From the designer of the first dishwasher, to wiper blades and safety products, Raj said women, especially women of color, were often written out of history.
“We are not doing this for the first time. This is who we’ve always been,” said Raj. “It’s called the mother of invention for a reason. We’ve been the inventors, we’ve been the creators, we’ve been the ones who have figured out solutions to everyday problems all the time. We are the ones who’ve done that. Let’s own it.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Cyberdeck building: Women lead a fashion-forward retro-inspired tech trend."
