Welcome back to Woman Crush Wednesday! I guarantee this week’s roundup of female wave makers will leave you feeling like one big heart-eyes emoji. I, for one, am totally smitten.

As a woman who writes for the internet, it’s hard not to notice a lot of aggression toward and exclusion of women in tech. And if you’re sick of talking about it, I promise you that we’re more sick of living with it. Here’s a shout-out to some of the women — both IRL and fictional! — making strides in tech, startup, and video game culture.

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Meet our crushes:

  • Reporter Molly McHugh for her article, “Women Should Keep Reading the Comments,” a response to the harassment, rape, and assault threats doled out by online commenters to women who spoke at Google I/O. “We need the commenters to get used to seeing powerful, smart women talking about tech — or whatever — so the strangeness wears off,” McHugh writes. “There’s no solving horrible commenters, so perhaps we can just hope to change what they’re being horrible about.” (Wired)
  • Audry Hill, Gauri Nanda, Lexy Funk, Emily Doubilet, and the multitude of female startup founders setting up shop in Brooklyn. Right now, the borough has the largest percentage of funded startups launched by women in the country. (Fortune)
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Eve Andrews / Grist

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  • Kate McLean, an artist and designer who just created an urban guide to odors. When it comes to city planning, smells could make a big difference. Who wants to check out a stinky new park, no matter how beautiful it is? (Pacific Standard)
  • Imperator Furiosa and the other ruthless female characters in Mad Max: Fury Road. (Don’t forget those “breeders” who swapped out their chastity belts for artillery.) We still can’t figure out why none of these characters made it into the upcoming Mad Max: Savage Road video game. (Grist)

Stay tuned for next week’s roundup!

Imperator Furiosa