Previously, Bright Little Labs produced Detective Dot, a story featuring a nine-year-old detective who uses technology to help in her missions, also aimed at using a diverse range of characters to make technology more accessible to girls and minority groups. Because of misconceptions about the STEM sector, is can be particularly difficult to encourage young women to consider STEM careers, with many wishing they had more encouragement from women already in the tech sector. Sophie previously worked at Code Club, alongside Google and the Department For Education, to help introduce the new coding curriculum in primary schools. Sophie believes wholeheartedly in the power of creativity, toilet humour and stories to inspire the next generation. The story is a great way to engage young readers in coding, critical-thinking and STEM. It is mapped onto key National Curriculum Computing KS1 and KS2 concepts including algorithms, conditionals and debugging. Sophie Deen, CEO of Bright Little Labs, said she created Agent Asha because she wanted to “normalise” what it means to be part of the tech sector.

Bright Little Labs' founder Sophie Deen's awards include the Barclays Start-Up Founder of the Year 2017, British Interactive Media Association Innovator 2017 and Computer Weekly's "Most Influential Women in UK IT" 2017. Sophie worked at Code Club, alongside Google and the Department for Education, to help introduce the new coding curriculum in primary schools. She then worked on their international strategy in over 80 countries. Sophie believes wholeheartedly in the power of creativity, toilet humour and stories to inspire the next generation. Previous clients include: F.S.G/Macmillan, Little Bee Books, Stripes Publishing, Capstone Publishing, Holiday House, Oxford University Press and Scholastic. In 2016 Sophie partnered with Walker Books to publish the first in a series of three children’s novels, Agent Asha: Mission Shark Bytes. The book follows a girl who becomes a top secret child spy and uses her coding ingenuity to defeat power hungry tech giants. It combines big ideas and puzzling questions into twist-y, turn-y STEM-themed adventures that teach kids the foundational skills of computer science: logic, sequencing and critical thinking. Deen, a former lawyer who used to head up Code Club World and Code Club Pro, and worked alongside several organisations with the Department of Education to develop the computing curriculum introduced in 2014, wants to use materials produced by Bright Little Labs to encourage young people from all walks of life to consider a future in STEM. This is a great book for kids usually more interested in screens than books such as my son who was bouncing with enthusiasm with the idea that there is an app which links into a book. You can use the app as a bribe to get them to read, but the fact that the app features the book is a brilliant incentive anyway. We really enjoyed it and we’re looking forward to more Agent Asha adventures.We’re passionate about using the power of inclusive stories and inclusive role models to inspire ALL kids into STEM, and everything we sell is sustainable, plastic-free, carbon neutral and made locally by people who are paid fairly. In 2014, the UK introduced a new computing curriculum, making it mandatory for children of certain ages to learn concepts such as coding and computational thinking skills. In 2020, he illustrated ‘Agent Asha: Shark Bytes’ by Sophie Dean, which was nominated for a Little Rebels Children’s Book Award and shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize in 2021. Anjan Sarkar is a British illustrator based in Sheffield, England. He graduated with a degree in Illustration & Animation from Manchester Metropolitan University. Since focusing on children’s illustration in 2015, he has created artwork for over 30 books. These include picture books, chapter books (for young and middle-grade readers) and graphic novels.

Bright Little Labs’ founder Sophie Deen’s awards include the Barclays Start-Up Founder of the Year 2017, British Interactive Media Association Innovator 2017 and Computer Weekly’s “Most Influential Women in UK IT” 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Sophie was recently named Creative Industries Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 for London & East of England (in partnership with Starling Bank). Sophie worked at Code Club, alongside Google and the Department for Education, to help introduce the new coding curriculum in primary schools. She then worked on their international strategy in over 80 countries. Sophie believes wholeheartedly in the power of creativity, toilet humour and stories to inspire the next generation. In my time in schools, I found that not every kid wants to be a coder (yet!), but almost every kid wants to be a spy,” she said. “I knew that parents felt alienated by the tech revolution, and that kids needed to ‘see it to be it’. So I created an immersive spy world starring 11-year-old Agent Asha Joshi – a tech whizz and secret agent for the Children’s Spy Agency. The 11-year-old protagonist of the series spends the first book using her coding skills to investigate “evil tech giants” to discover who is trying to bring down the internet. A former lawyer, techie and school counsellor, Sophie is an award-winning author and Founder of Bright Little Labs - a media company using stories to teach kids aged 3-11 about technology and coding. Their products have been voted as the Independent’s Top Coding Toy three years in a row.Agent Asha herself is an 11-year-old from Wembley, London, who has just been asked to join the largest spy agency in the world! She’s been shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Young People's Book Prize, the Little Rebels Award and is operating in over 80 countries. We would tell you more about her adventures, but we’ve been sworn to secrecy. The WHAT-A BOTTLE: It turns even the muddiest puddle water into clean drinking water and is also a state-of-the-art multi-tool that includes: a Screwdriver, Laser torch, Emergency dog whistle, and a diamond cutter All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM suggests recommendations for increasing equity in education after stating coronavirus makes diversity increasingly important. He is currently working on the graphic novel adaptations of Stuart Gibbs’ Spy School series, the first of which was published by Simon & Schuster New York in February 2022. Agent Asha helps kids with STEM, coding and creativity through award-winning spy stories and games. We teach kids 21st-century skills using hi-tech spy stories, because not every kid wants to be a coder, but almost everyone wants to be a spy!

This encouraged us to think about what what spy gadgets we could come up with. By far our best invention was the SUPER MULTIPURPOSE BRACELET, what do you think? I created Agent Asha to ensure that everyone has access to, and is empowered to have, a voice in our increasingly digital world,” she said. “Over the last decade, coding has become a basic literacy, like reading and writing. It’s the number one sought-after skill in employees, and workers with coding skills get paid the highest wages. Yet not everyone is able to access these skills.” Most of those leaving education at age 18 or 21 this year do not have the technical and practical skills they need to find work at this time of pandemic recession.