The character arc of Reshma Saujani
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents who had left Uganda. Between then and now sit a degree at Illinois in 1997, a Harvard master's in 1999, a Yale law degree in 2002, an investment firm in 2005, a hedge fund closed after the 2008 collapse, a campaign begun in 2009 and lost in 2010, Girls Who Code founded in 2012, a Fortune list in 2015, a TED talk in 2016, the book Brave, Not Perfect in 2018, Moms First in 2021 and a Time listing in 2026. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Reshma Saujani?
She lost, badly.
She was born in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents who had left Uganda. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997 with majors in political science and speech communication, took a Master of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 1999, and a Juris Doctor at Yale Law School in 2002. In 2005 she joined the investment firm Carret Asset Management, and was an associate general counsel at Blue Wave, a hedge fund that closed in the aftermath of the 2008 market collapse.
In 2009 she began a campaign for a New York congressional seat, and she lost it in 2010. A poll commissioned that spring showed her trailing by more than sixty eight points, which is not a close race. She had outraised her opponent by almost two to one in the last quarter of 2009. She ran again in 2013 for a city office and came third.
What she took from the first campaign is the rest of the line. She became aware of the extent of the gender gap in computing while visiting schools during it, and in 2012 she founded Girls Who Code, a non-profit working to reduce that gap by encouraging girls to take up computer science early. She was named to Fortune's 40 Under 40 in 2015, spoke at the TED Conference in 2016 on encouraging young girls to take risks and to learn to program, and published Brave, Not Perfect in 2018, which argues that girls are brought up to avoid failure and that this keeps them out of hard fields. As of 2026 the organisation has worked with over 860,000 students. She founded a second non-profit for mothers in 2021, was elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers in 2019, began hosting a podcast in 2024, executive produced a documentary released in June 2026, and was named one of Time's 2026 Women of the Year.
The moments
Reshma Saujani's timeline.
The 1990s
Illinois
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Political science and speech, which is a good description of what came next.
Harvard, then Yale
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Two of the hardest schools in the country, back to back.
The 2000s
Into finance
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A law degree, used inside an investment firm.
The fund closed
Setback, and it changed her direction. The fund shut, along with a lot of others that year.
The 2010s
Sixty eight points behind
Setback, and it changed everything. More than sixty eight points behind, and she kept going out to the schools.
What to do after losing
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: build what she saw, taken, or go back to the law. Girls Who Code has worked with over 860,000 students as of 2026.
Forty under forty
Milestone. A list, in the year after the defeat.
Girls Who Code
Milestone, and it changed everything. Founded out of what she saw while losing.
Third in the primary
Setback, and it changed her direction. A second run, and a third place.
Fortune 40 Under 40
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A national list, three years after founding it.
A TED talk
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The argument, made on the biggest stage for arguments.
Brave, Not Perfect
Milestone, and it changed everything. A book about being brave rather than perfect, from somebody who had lost in public.
The Harvard Overseers
Milestone. Elected by graduates, to govern the place she studied at.
The 2020s
A second organisation
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A second thing built, nine years after the first.
A Woman of the Year
Milestone, and it changed everything. Eight hundred and sixty thousand students, and counting.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is the one thing the defeat was good for: she would not have walked into those schools if she had not been losing, and 860,000 students later, that is the whole story.
What she wrote
Books by Reshma Saujani
- 2018
Brave, Not Perfect
Its argument is that girls are socialised to avoid failure, and that this is what keeps them out of hard fields like computer science. Written by somebody who had lost an election by more than sixty eight points and started something because of it.
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Reshma Saujani: frequently asked questions
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More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Reshma Saujani, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Girls Who Code, founded 2012, and its reported reach as of 2026.
- University of Illinois, Harvard Kennedy School and Yale Law School degree records, 1997, 1999 and 2002.