Supercell, the developer of the wildly popular Clash of Clans, handed down control of the company to a 15-year-old girl for one day. Ilkka Paananen, CEO of the company, stepped down to Sonja Korpelainen.
Korpelainen was one of 600 girls involved in the #girlstakeover campaign that celebrated the International Day of the Girl.
Supercell announced on their Facebook page, “We believe that gender stereotypes and societal expectations shouldn’t constrain girls’ dreams and limit their possibilities. For us to make the best games to as many people as possible we need more girls to the game development industry.”
Korpelainen did actually run the company too. She met with staff and developers, one of them being Camilla Avellar. Avellar said, “I feel that sometimes it’s a bit hard to get your ideas out there. Mostly because maybe the guys don’t really feel that way about things, so sometimes it’s hard to sell your idea if no one sees things the way you are.”
Korpelainen reflected on the day saying, “I don’t see that there would be a problem for girls in this industry. I think the problem is not inside the industry, I think it is about people encouraging girls to study this industry or to just get involved. When you come here it’s like you don’t even see the difference between the genders.”