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Holding Your Hand While I Say This: You Need "Receipts"

Holding Your Hand While I Say This: You Need "Receipts"

You don’t have to shout to be seen. Here’s why your “receipts” prove your worth. Plus DEF CON 33 deets & volunteer opportunities!

Darlyze Calixte & Adriann Guy
August 19, 2025

👀THIS ISSUE AT A GLANCE

TL;DR

Visibility, Your Way → Why introverts need brag documents—self-advocacy isn’t optional.
What Goes Down @ DEF CON → From Gooning & GRC meetups to AI red-teaming, deepfakes: women build community in cybersecurity.
On the Global Stage → CHF Co-Founder Adriann Guy joins the WCHL National Round jury; builder submissions due Aug 23rd
Get Involved → Volunteer for our Cyber Awareness Month (Sept-Oct) & the #75HER Challenge (Jan–Mar 2026). Apps close Aug 25.
This Week’s Wins → $100K Google Cloud AI Hackathon, $1K First Gen Fellowships, & AfroTech 2025 ticket giveaway.

Visibility, Your Way: Advocating for Yourself as an Introvert

Sound familiar? Your ideas deserve credit—and documentation.

If you’re an introvert (or just don’t love self-promotion), standing out in tech might feel daunting. But self-advocacy is essential—and you can do it authentically, in a way that fits you.

That’s where your brag document becomes important. The most successful women in tech aren't necessarily the loudest in the room. Often, they’re the ones quietly tracking their wins, building inner confidence, and advocating for themselves with facts—no spotlight required.

The payoff? Greater recognition, promotions, and renewed self-belief—without changing who you are.

And you’re not alone: research from BCG found that top female tech executives had to learn new ways to communicate their value. That’s why, inspired by a need to help more women advocate for themselves, Julia Evans created the Brag Document methodology.

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^{The way this 'brag document' practice started in the first place is that my coworker Karla and I wanted to help other women in engineering advocate for themselves more in the performance review process. The idea is that some people undersell their accomplishments more than they should, so we wanted to encourage those people to 'brag' a little bit and write down what they did that was important.}

Julia Evans, Software Engineer & Creator of the Brag Document Methodology

Of course, self-advocacy goes further when it’s a team effort. As Katie Burke, Chief People Officer at HubSpot, puts it:

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^{Women who may be reluctant to talk about their own accomplishments often have no problem singing the praises of their friends and colleagues. … If women aren’t socialized to brag for ourselves, and we often get ignored even if we do tout our efforts, maybe we’re better off getting our co-workers to brag for us.}

Katie Burke - Women@HubSpot, from ThinkGrowth

So yes—start your brag doc. But also become a champion for your peers and encourage them to do the same. Peer support amplifies impact and helps create a culture where every win gets its moment. Above all, be proud of every accomplishment along the way!

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^{Your best champion and cheerleader is yourself. Always be proud of your accomplishments, big or small.}

Dr. Ayanna Howard - Roboticist & Leader in AI & STEM Education

Ready to become your own biggest advocate? Download your brag document template and reply to this email to celebrate your latest win. We want to highlight YOU in our next email newsletter!

Where My CybHER Girlies At?

Engineer & Co-Founder Adriann Guy recaps everything from Goon goodies & free scrunchies to brunch with Women in Security & Privacy & Vegas bar chats with GRC girlies @ DEF CON 33

“A hacker, a Goon, and an exploit walk into Vegas bar. The exploit picks up the first round’s tab; everyone else is already compromised.”
That may just sound like the start of one of my notoriously bad dad jokes, but for me, it arcs DEF CON as a collision of culture, community, and responsibility.

For anyone new here, DEF CON is the world’s largest hacker conference. The closing event of Hacker Summer Camp, when tens of thousands of cyber and relative techies gather in Las Vegas every year to stress-test technology, share research, and cause some real chaos! But what mattered most: even in a space like cybersecurity long dominated by men, women are impacting, building power, visibility, and community.

The Highlights

Gooning on the Vendors Team → My first year adding value in a leadership capacity as a “Goon” @ DEF CON; My team supported the companies, exhibitors, and communities who’ve kept this 33 year old, annual conference running.
GRC Meetup w/ Nikita Gupta + Passing It Forward → Caught up with all my GRC guys and girlies + received a copy of GRC Engineering for AWS from AJ Yawn. I’ll be passing this goodie along to my mentee and CreateHER Fest community lead, Fasa David, as she steps further into her GRC career.
DEF CON Villages →DEF CON’s hands-on hubs for hacking and collaboration. I got to nerd-out red-teaming AI models and exploring deepfake detection in the AI Village, sharpen my OSINT skills at Recon Village, + learn firsthand about U.S. election hardware & software exploits at the Voting Village, African cybercrime economies in the Black in Cyber Village and securing apps in the AppSec Village
Women Supporting Women → from the Women in Security & Privacy brunch to career strategy convos with GRC girlies and my fellow Goons, I was reminded again that mentorship, visibility, and connection are what actually keep women moving forward in this industry.

Hacker Summer Camp

But that’s not it, DEF CON is just one piece of what we call Hacker Summer Camp, a week where Black Hat, The Diana Initiative, BSidesLV, SquadCon, and DEF CON converge in Las Vegas, pulling in everyone from seasoned researchers to first-time hackers.

And in the middle of all that, women can find community, support, and representation from cyber communities like Women in Security & Privacy (WISP), Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) and Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, to BlackGirlsHack, Raíces Cyber Org, and of course Black in Cyber, proving that women and allies aren’t just visible, but building, leading, and shaping the culture of cybersecurity itself.

💡 The Bigger Picture

DEF CON displays every year that cybersecurity isn’t just about exploits or tools, it’s about people, community, and collective action. That’s the energy we’re carrying into October: Cybersecurity Awareness Month!`

At CreateHER Fest, we’re building a campaign that will break down what cybersecurity really means for all of us. From personal digital hygiene to vibe coded app security, we’re about making the risks, and the solutions, visible, practical, and inclusive.

Because the future of security isn’t defined by what “happens in Vegas”, it’s the responsibility we share through solution we create together.

IN THE COMMUNITY

CreateHER Fest Joins the WCHL Jury

We’re excited to announce that Adriann Guy, CreateHER Fest Co-Founder, has been selected as a National Round Judge for the World Computer Hacker League (WCHL) in North America 🇺🇸🇨🇦.

We’re thrilled to be in partnership with ICP Hub Canada, Quantum Leap Labs, and the global ICP ecosystem to power this mission.

For those in our CreateHER community who registered to build:
⏰ Final submissions are due by August 23rd. Don’t miss your chance to showcase your work on the global stage!

👉 Follow us on X to stay in the loop and cheer on our CreateHERs as they showcase their work on the global stage.

OPPORTUNITIES

Join Our #75HER Challenge Volunteer Team!

We're planning our most ambitious hackathon technical series yet – the #75HER Challenge! Following CreateHER Fest’s Hack For Social Good success, this 75-day virtual experience (January 6 - March 31, 2026) will continue our annual International Women’s Day celebrations, taking participants through our Learn-a-thon, Idea-thon, & Hackathon focused on building with emerging technologies.

We need passionate volunteers for: Workshop coordination, mentor liaisons, technical support, graphic design, marketing, copywriting, and more!

Volunteer perks include:

Career Credibility
Global Access & Visibility
Hands-on Skill Building & Leadership
Exclusive Tech Event Invites
Free Premium Tools like Free Perplexity Pro & Comet!

Ready to make an impact? Apply by August 25th:

THIS WEEK’S RESOURCES

Google Cloud $100K AI Hackathon
- Google and Google Cloud just launched a $100,000 AI hackathon to unlock value from raw data; think support tickets, PDFs, product images, and audio that usually sit unused. Over 6 weeks, you’ll build projects that showcase new AI capabilities for analyzing unstructured data. Submissions Due Sept 22nd!. Join the Challenge →
2025 First Gen Fellowship
- Apply for one of 50 unrestricted $1,000 hardship grants for full-time first-generation college students experiencing financial need. This fellowship is designed to directly support first-gen students and recognize your resilience and achievements.
  Apply by August 29th! Apply Now →
AfroTech 2025 Conference Pass Giveaway
- Win a full conference pass (valued at $472) to AfroTech 2025 in Houston, October 27–31, courtesy of The Collaborative Training Company (CTC)! Open to early-career professionals, students (18+), or entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds in tech, entrepreneurship, or related industries.
  Apply by September 1st! Apply Now →