My parents are lifelong entrepreneurs, and I learned the basics of running a business by hanging around their stores and factories when I was a girl -- observing, listening to their stories, doing little chores like cleaning the bathroom or helping customers. How should young people without those experiences learn to run startups? Are there enough role models and mentors out there for young people of color interested in STEM? An innovative public discussion on Twitter considered these issues.

The theme that resonated most with me: It's much harder for people of color to fit in. 

The tech and STEM sectors are dominated by white men and are not welcoming. Women and people of color like assistant professor of physics Kerstin Perez note that they have to work much harder to keep focused and not give up. "Science is challenging," Perez tweets. "If you don't see yourself reflected in senior roles, self-doubt can be crippling." Telle Whitney, president and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute, says she's working to change the tech culture in Silicon Valley. "We need to engage with companies engaging in unconscious bias, from CEO level to folks just entering the workforce," she says. "Unconscious bias is more subtle (and inadvertent) discrimination."

Did you know NPR has a Tumblr where they're interviewing people for #RaceOnTech?

Here's their interview with Tracy Chou:

http://npr.tumblr.com/post/123722726228/around-the-world-about-1-4-billion-people-use