Wendy Darling

Back when Wendy was graduating high school, in 1993, the World Wide Web was born. That was the year the first modern "browser" (what later became Netscape) was invented. The first "web pages" were created with text, links, and graphics. Although she was very computer literate, Wendy didn't even know this had happened. But eventually this invention would change her life and make a career for her!

Skip forward a couple of years. As a student at UMass Amherst, Wendy started using "Lynx," a text-based version of the Web. She was a geek and so she liked it. Then she found out that students could get accounts to create their own web site for free! After much tinkering and mucking around in the dark (on UNIX!) Wendy managed to create her first web site. This was sometime in 1995.

The end of Wendy's Web naivete came during her senior year, 1996-1997, which she spent on "domestic exchange" at the University of Georgia. One of the reasons she'd gone on exchange there is that she'd heard about an amazing and very ahead-of-its-time web development program. The classes Wendy took at UGA were a bit like bootcamp, with probably six months education crammed into a quarter's worth of class time, but in that time, Wendy was introduced to all the basics of HTML, some JavaScript, Adobe Photoshop, and even how to work with clients to build real projects.

The GDPH web site, which still uses the same design Wendy helped create.

All that hands-on experience (especially working with clients!) helped Wendy land her first job, a contract position working for the Georgia Division of Public Health (GTRI), headquartered in Downtown Atlanta.

At GDPH, Wendy got a lot more of an education, learning by doing. Wendy eventually became a primary webmaster, designer, and content-writer for the web site. Thanks to her efforts and those of the web site team, over the next three years, the GDPH web site grew into one of the most comprehensive public resources available at the state level anywhere in the country.

It was during this time that Wendy started up Metro Girl (see company history). She also moved Downtown, right next to the state office building where she worked. Living Downtown became a big part of Wendy's life. Some of the first on-the-side projects Wendy did were Downtown-related; these include the first web site of the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association (subsequently redeveloped, also by Wendy) and a web site for her condo community, The Metropolitan. (Note: Wendy still lives Downtown, but at The Healey.)

The GTRI web site, which Wendy developed and maintained over a period of over three years..

Feeling like it was time for a change, in early 2000, Wendy left GTRI for another contract position, this one at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), part of Georgia Tech. She had to leave Downtown to get to her job, but it was a good environment, especially for learning, and projects were full of challenge.

Around the time she started working at GTRI, Wendy saw a lot of changes in her life. She started reading "fan fiction" based on books she liked, and began to develop a lot of online relationships, as she participated in various online "fandoms." It was through these associations that Wendy wound up being introduced to the works of English writer Storm Constantine, who subsequently became a friend and mentor. To read more about this adventure and where it led -- several books, trips to England, editing a zine -- read "Wendy's Other Life." Wendy has a second career as an author and editor.

After three years at GTRI, and feeling constrained in the running of her business and pursuit of her writing, Wendy decided she was ready to stick it out on her own with Metro Girl, full-time. The time was ripe. There's a home office, a steady contract or two, and a customer base out there waiting for somebody to give them one-on-one attention instead of the corporate approach of a big web design company.

Update, circa 2007: Wendy now has a full-time job at Emory Univeristy, as web development specialist at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. She continues Metro Girl on the side, once again.

Pick Wendy (Metro Girl!) as you designer! (And if you really want more background on Wendy, have a look at her online portfolio.)