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Zuzana didn’t grow up coding at age 10, she came to development later in life, looking for flexible work she could do around raising three kids. A chance encounter with an online bootcamp that happened to use PHP (not JavaScript like most today) set her on a path she never expected. WordPress meetups and self-directed learning became her entry point into a world that would soon feel surprisingly lonely.

Learning to code in her home bubble felt comfortable and welcoming. Then Zuzana walked into her first in-person PHP meetup and realized: she was the only woman developer in the room. WordPress meetups had women, but they were in design, SEO, and marketing—not development. The question hit hard: Where are all the women? Why am I the only one here?

While searching for role models in Laravel, Zuzana found herself reading Django Girls and PyLadies stories religiously. Not because she used those frameworks, but because she desperately needed to see that people like her, with different backgrounds, ages, career paths—could succeed in this field. Laravel had no equivalent community. When she asked on Twitter if one existed, a stranger replied: “Why don’t you create one and call it Larabelles?”

For a year, that suggestion sat in the back of her mind. She was nobody. She was too new. This was for “real developers” to create, not her. But friends pushed her to just do it—and within days, she had a domain, a one-page website, and a tweet. She had no plan for what it would become. She just wanted to meet someone like her.

Larabelles isn’t just for women—it’s for anyone who doesn’t identify as a man and feels underrepresented in tech. Finding the right language is hard (the website tagline keeps evolving), but the mission is clear: if you don’t feel like you belong because of your gender, you belong here.

One member described attending her first conference with Larabelles as feeling like instant friendship—like going to a Taylor Swift concert where everyone just gets it. No more shouting into the void on Stack Overflow or wondering if anyone will answer. Now there’s a community that will actually respond, mentor, and connect.

With speakers in the Larabelles directory and a growing community across Discord and beyond, conference organizers can no longer claim they “don’t know any female speakers.” The directory exists. The community exists. The work to reach underrepresented developers might take more effort, but the excuse is gone.

Recent survey results reveal what many suspected: the community is still heavily male-dominated, but the numbers for women and other genders are creeping upward. Real change starts at the top—diversity in leadership at places like the PHP Foundation matters because it trickles down and shows what’s possible.

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