I listened, read, googled, absorbed anything I could find about her. They pinged over old radio shows with mathematicians singing her praises and explaining her life story.įrom then on, I was obsessed. I told my tutor about her, and he suggested I get in touch with the BBC archives. The internet informed me she was the first computer programmer, and she was from the 1800s, but I couldn’t find much else. And there were beautiful quotes about her from her friends, calling her a 'lady fairy' and an 'enchantress of numbers'. There was a painting of her in a purple dress with fancy hair. I hadn’t heard of her before, but she was one of the few female mathematicians among hordes of men, so she stuck out. My love of maths flooded back, and I ran home to frantically google mathematicians for hours. It’s a film about Alan Turing and how he built the first-ever computer. Then, The Imitation Game hit the cinemas. I decided to go to art college because art was also my hobby, and who wouldn’t want a career of your hobby? So maths went on the backburner for a while. But these two subjects were always very separate, so as I grew up, I had to pick one over the other.

When I was at school, I had two favourite subjects: maths and art.

I’ve been obsessed with Ada Lovelace for a long time. It's no wonder that there's even an Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate her legacy! Anna Doherty tells all. Rebel, rule-breaker and number whizz: there are so many reasons to love Ada Lovelace. Why you should be obsessed with Ada Lovelace (just like me)

The Brontes by Anna Doherty