Founded by Laura Donnelly and Alicia Rascon, Latinitas was originally conceived as a class project at the University of Texas Austin over 12 years ago as a way to address the misrepresentation and lack of positive portrayals of Latinas in media and technology. To do this, Laura and Alicia founded the only digital magazine of its kind, made for and by young Latinas.

Through this initiative, Laura and Alicia have developed innovative digital media, technology and cultural literacy education programs in the form of clubs, camps, workshops and conferences that have served tens of thousands since 2002. Laura and Alicia and the programs they have created are teaching girls to try new things, to express themselves and to outline their goals and dreams. To this date Latinitas has served over 20,000 elementary, middle and high school Latinas with after school enrichment programs focused on media, technology and cultural literacy. The dynamic of the program is one where the girls are modeling behavior for their younger counterparts and the formula is working. As a result, 92 percent of Latinitas program alumni reported that they had graduated from high school within four years.