In an era when women were told that science was not for them, Ada Lovelace chose to study mathematics. When the world told her that machines could only calculate, she wrote the world’s first algorithm. When society confined women to drawing rooms and embroidery hoops, she imagined a future where creativity and logic could intertwine to build entirely new worlds.

Ada’s story is not just history; it is a mirror. Every woman in technology today who has been told “this field isn’t for you” is walking in her footsteps. Every line of code written by women who still fight for equal recognition carries the same defiant spirit that Ada embodied nearly two centuries ago.

She is not only the world’s first programmer. She is the original barrier-breaker, the woman who proved that brilliance knows no gender, and the pioneer whose vision challenges us all to keep pushing forward.

To truly appreciate Ada’s impact, however, we must look beyond her famous title. Here are five surprising and fascinating facts you may not know about Ada Lovelace, each revealing a side of her life that makes her legacy all the more extraordinary.

1. The Woman Who Saw the Future Before the World Believed in Her
 

In her extensive notes on the Analytical Engine, Ada sketched a vision that stretched far beyond mathematics. She wrote of machines that could manipulate symbols, compose melodies, and create patterns of art. To her, numbers were not just quantities to be calculated, but building blocks of creativity.

What she described in the 1840s is strikingly familiar today: machines that can generate music, translate languages, and even write stories. At a time when most minds were bound to the mechanics of industry, Ada saw the possibility of a digital age. She imagined the future of computers before the very idea of a computer truly existed.

2. The First Computer Program Was Written by a Woman
 

In those same notes, Ada laid out a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers. This was no idle thought experiment. It was a detailed algorithm — a set of instructions written for a machine that had not yet been built. With it, she created the world’s first computer program.

Her achievement was extraordinary not only because of its precision, but because of its context. A woman in nineteenth-century England had written the blueprint for programming itself, planting a seed that would grow into the foundations of modern computing.

3. A Poet’s Daughter Who Made Poetry Out of Numbers
 

Ada was the only legitimate child of the Romantic poet Lord Byron. While her father filled the world with verse and scandal, her mother directed Ada toward mathematics, determined to guard her from what she saw as Byron’s dangerous imagination.

But Ada inherited both parents’ legacies. From her father, she carried the spark of creativity; from her mother, the discipline of logic. She often described herself as a “poetical scientist,” a thinker who could see beauty in equations and imagination in symbols. This marriage of art and mathematics gave her a perspective no one else had, allowing her to see machines as more than tools — but as instruments of creation.

4. Her Body Was Fragile, But Her Dreams Were Fierce
 

Illness shadowed Ada throughout her life. As a teenager, she was struck by measles that left her paralyzed for months. Later, she endured migraines, fragile health, and the cancer that would claim her life at just thirty-six.

Yet none of these struggles dimmed her determination. She studied from her bed, wrote letters full of ideas, and pursued her intellectual passions with an intensity that defied her circumstances. Though her body was frail, her mind was fierce. Her legacy is not just one of brilliance, but of resilience — the determination to keep dreaming, even when life sets obstacles in your way.

5. The Genius Who Was Forgotten — Until the World Was Ready for Her
 

After her death, Ada’s notes lay largely forgotten. For nearly a century, her contributions were overlooked, her genius left to gather dust. Only in the mid-twentieth century, as computers began to emerge, was her work rediscovered. Scholars realized that Ada had written the first program, and that her vision had anticipated the very field they were building.

Her legacy came roaring back. The programming language ADA was named in her honor. Ada Lovelace Day was established to celebrate women in STEM. Today, her name is invoked as a symbol of visionary brilliance, proof that even when the world ignores you, history will one day remember.

Beyond Boundaries: Honoring Ada’s Legacy
 

Ada Lovelace’s life is not only a story of the past — it is a legacy that continues to shape the present. She showed the world that courage, imagination, and intellect have no boundaries, even when society tries to impose them. She proved that women could not only belong in science and technology, but could stand at its very forefront, defining its future.

Today, we honor her spirit in many ways, but perhaps the most fitting is through the recognition of women who, like Ada, are rewriting the rules in technology. That is why the Ada Lovelace Award for Women in ICT is one of the cornerstone categories at the WomenTech Global Awards. This award shines a light on women who embody Ada’s vision — women who combine logic and creativity, who push through barriers, and who imagine new possibilities in the digital age.

👉 Nominate or self-nominate today for the Ada Lovelace Award for Women in ICT and join us in celebrating those who carry Ada’s spirit forward.