🌼🌑 Barbie dreams & European nightmares

Traditionally, in March I publish articles on security. However, today is International Women's day and I wanted to publish something more personal which is actually connected to cybersecurity: the urgent need for a fair and secure online platform for young people. A platform where young people can share the idea, one that could even be supported by Big Tech companies in search for new ideas and user feedback.

💶 Good ideas do not come from blood or parents' money

When proposing this idea of a platform which would grade young people's ideas (or not even just young, but people in general) based on game theory, people laughed in Brussels. Especially French and Germans: they were like "We already have VC and EU funds, why don't people with ideas just start a company and look for funding?". Well, the reality is not that simple: in Italy where I come from, even privileged Venice, only people with rich parents have the possibility to start a company young, due to initial costs. I am capable only now, with lots of sacrifices and years of work, to finally think of doing that: at 18 or in my college years, when I had to rely on scholarship and took a loan to study in Berlin, I simply could not afford it. It's not like I did not have ideas, I was just not privileged enough or, even if my extended family was (while my immediate family always struggled with money), I simply did not want to make it out of family connection. You see, an idea needs to work not because your parents are rich, but because it's solid. In Europe, instead, we often see in the South young kids labeled as "genius" while simply continuing the family business or using family money to promote ideas that never make it on a big scale, while in Germany or France society is so stratified that a young guy or girl who did not go to a gymnasium will never be taken seriously. Like, who would finance a girl from the banlieue in France? I will tell you who: nobody. Nevertheless, she could have the best and most innovative idea ever because good ideas are not tied to blood or parents' money.

🇪🇺 The EU institutions are not accessible financially: Not even living in Brussels is

We can discuss for years about why Europe is not competitive, I wrote a research on this in 2024, and I am realizing that the reality is even easier: we are not competitive because Europe is still inherently classist. The EU has replaced noblemen who ruled Europe back in the days (not so long ago, until WWII Italy for instance was still a monarchy) who kept arguing with one another until the Americans had to come to their rescue. There was no meritocracy back then and there is no meritocracy now: we have EU bureaucrats who argue and often don't speak with one another, while asking money to the U.S. People were ignore back then and are ignored now, especially young people. Of course, people in Brussels are not admitted based on their blood, but if we take a closer look at the situation they do are admitted on their income: when I was a Blue Book trainee I make 1.2K, compared to Italian standards it was good, but it was barely enough to make it in Brussels. It was difficult for me to live there and I did not have a wealthy immediate family behind like lots of my peers: on the last day of my traineeship at the Commission we were asked how many of us had financial hardship growing up, I said I did, I was one of the very few. This means that if you work hard and come from a family where money is tight, still Brussels might not be affordable for you and the EU will not welcome you: you are like a class B citizen, maybe your blood is noble (like mine partly is), but if your family is not wealthy enough if for instance like in my family one of your parents was ill and could not provide a lot (my dad made more or less my same trainee salary in Brussels even right before retirement), you are going to struggle to reach the institutions.

🌼 Barbie dreams: Being born in the '90s

I love the '90s. It's the decade I was born in (1995 of course) & the last decade in which people were asking each other "Where do you live? How are you? What do you do for living?". Now we don't talk and, most importantly we don't listen, we just creep on people's profile. What's weirder is that we call social media toxic, when it's actually US being toxic. It's like of the world wemt to a restaurant, almost everyone ate 10 dishes, vomited, and then said the restaurant is bad. Social media is not bad (actually I love testing new tools, especially for storytelling!), what is bad is stop asking your friends or the person next to you how they are and then spy on their profile. I love using Instagram and X for new ideas, to try new stuff for the blog or even share stuff with a larger group than any group chat, but I am not here for likes. I am always going to be a '90s child: I want to live a life where social media boosts my creativity and its not my entire life experience.

So this is my dream: to have big tech supporting the creation of a platform where young people feel safe to express their ideas and creativities, rather than sharing their bodies (especially women), what they eat, what that hate or comparing themselves. I think this would be a platform where big tech would be able to listen more as now they have to spend way too much money on research, while this platform would give them feedback for free. Of course, this could help also institutions, but in my experience, they are not as willing to listen as big tech companies: indeed, I was always welcomed in any big tech headquarters to talk about inclusion (Meta even referred me to Women in immersive Tech), but I never was in EU institutional offices.

🌑 European nightmares: Growing up in the South of Europe

Going back to the question: "We already have VC and EU funds, why don't people with ideas just start a company and look for funding?" the answer at this point is clear. Not everyone can start a company: if you are a student living on a Greek island, you are very unlikely not only to start a company but, if you do, to be able to get in touch with the right people. For my book "Italian dream" I was supported by Andrea Piol, son of Elserino Piol, who brought VC and IT in Italy with Olivetti (and even discovered a young Steve Jobs). He was from the Italian Alps like my mom and his later years decided to create EPI Hub, his foundation, exactly with this objective: to give people from remote areas, like the Alps in Veneto, a place to make their ideas come true. However, for how much I hope this type of hub will spread around Europe, I think that there will always be the need to connect people from peripheral areas to those who will make their wishes come true: both tech companies and, hopefully, institutions if they finally understand technology. Indeed, I still think that is public and private together that make innovative dreams come true and having a platfrom to share ideas, not just physical hubs, could be a game changer. However, for now Europe remains a nightmare: the people in power, some of which were in power also when Greece was starving, do not want innovation. They want tradition, even if it's at the cost of starving even more people or turning Europe into an open air museum. A place where only people from elite schools, with always the same ideas, can make it.

Demostrations in Greece during the economic crisis

👩🏼‍🎓 "I am never going to be good enough for you, am I?" Elle Woods

This quote from "Legally blonde" summarizes my mood perfectly. Yes, because I did take a loan to go to an elite school, I did work in Brussels for years, I did predict that Russian sanctions were going to be a hot topic already in 2020 (unlike most people in Brussels) yet none takes me seriously. I am realizing now that, when I was younger and working hard only as a teenager to keep my parents happy in tough times, I thought that by leaving my artistic and IT pursuits aside to study politics and economics I was going to make it. If I was moving to Germany, Europe's richest country, and be pro-Europe, I was not going to be like like a failure, like the people that brought crisis to the South of Europe and were against the EU. I believed in Europe. Then, after years of working sometimes also for free for the EU, I realized that, no matter what I did, I was never going to be good enough. For the people in Brussels I was still going to be just an Italian girl with weird ideas (even if proved right by history) and not enough money to count, no matter how many sacrifices I was making. At best, I was treated like a pretty girl with an attitude when silent, at worst I was treated like a difficult person for expressing an opinion.

Hedy Lamarr, who I deeply admire and is a very distant acquired relative, used to say "Any girl can look glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid." I just don't want to do that: If that's the price for making my dreams come true in Europe, I am not willing to pay it.

Love,

Elena

Resources:

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/2068-a-coup-in-greece-four-difficult-questions-from-franco-bifo-berardi?srsltid=AfmBOop6_JmF-iRsuDa_oBKhVyFc6LJ9YucM1FQp98xxtvRE-M7LVhEZ

(also for the picture above)