Laila Shabir

Laila Shabir is game developer known for founding the Girls Make Games summer camp that introduces girls and nonbinary children to computer game development.

Early life and education

Shabir's family is from Pakistan and she grew up in the United Arab Emirates in the town of Al Ain. While her parents wanted Shabir and her sister to think independently, the environment around them expected more traditional actions from women. When she was not accepted to any universities in the United Arab Emirates, Shabir moved to the United States for college, and she graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she studied economics. Their first video game, Penguemic, was released in 2013. The camp was started in 2014 when Shabir noticed the gender gap in applicants for jobs in the video game industry. In 2023, Girls Make Games announced a scholarship fund that aimed to makes college more affordable for alumni of the camp. this was the first time a woman received this award.