Ethan Started Coding Classes at 9. At 13, He Built His Own Browser.

Most kids his age are playing video games. Ethan, 13, is building a browser: a fully functional Java-based browser with a custom UI and an embedded Chromium framework, written entirely by a teenager who started taking coding classes for kids at age 9. His story is one of the clearest examples we have of what happens when a curious child gets the right environment and enough time to go deep.

How Ethan Came to Coding Classes at 9

Ethan's parents enrolled him at Strive Coding when he was 9. He already loved gaming and tech, and they wanted to give him somewhere purposeful to channel that energy, a place where a curious kid could actually build things. Three and a half years later, he has 38 public repositories, his own software studio called (ing) Studios, a YouTube channel, and a contact email for developer requests. He became a developer. That progression from Python fundamentals to production software is the heart of his story, and every step of it was built on what came before.

What Ethan Has Built at 13

These are real software projects, published and in use:

• Turtlebrowse: a fully functional Java-based browser built from scratch, with a custom UI and an embedded Chromium framework
• Examduler: a free, open-source exam management system with AI-generated summaries and Google OAuth
• Calculite: a Material You themed calculator built in Vue.js
• Chrome Extensions: published and live in the Chrome Web Store
• 38 public repositories on GitHub, and counting

Every project started with a problem Ethan wanted to solve or a tool he wanted to exist. That pattern of identifying a need and building the solution is what separates coding as a subject from coding as a mindset.

You can explore everything he has built on his GitHub: github.com/ingstudiosofficial.

What Coding Classes for Kids Actually Develop

The gap between learning to write a loop in a lesson and shipping open-source software that other developers fork and use is enormous. Traditional coding education takes many years to close this gap. Ethan closed it in record time with AI assistance, because the foundation he built on actually held.

Before Ethan was building browsers and AI-powered exam systems, he was working through Python: writing code that produced something he could show people, building games his friends could play, completing the seven units of Strive Coding that are the equivalent of a first-year university introduction to programming. Those units were where the real capabilities formed: logic, first-principles thinking, persistence through failure, comfort with uncertainty, the ability to hold a complex problem in your head and work through it methodically.

The arrival of AI has made those fundamentals more important, not less. Students who understand how code actually works are better at directing AI tools, better at catching errors before they compound, and more capable of building things that function as intended. Students who skip the fundamentals and rely entirely on AI output are at the mercy of tools they don't understand. Ethan was never in that position. When he builds with AI now, he reads what it produces and evaluates it, knowing what it got right and correcting what it got wrong. That ability to direct rather than just accept is what the foundation built.

His parents gave him the time and the space. Strive gave him real problems and a teacher who took him seriously. He figured out the rest.

A 13-Year-Old with a Software Studio

Ethan is in secondary school with a professional email address for developer requests, a YouTube channel dedicated to his work, and production-grade software to his name: applications with authentication and databases, AI integration, and published browser extensions.

All of it grew from three and a half years of being given the right conditions and taking them seriously.

This is what's possible when coding classes for kids are treated as more than a useful skill to pick up. When you give a curious child a real teacher, real tools, and real problems to solve, they surprise everyone, including themselves.

Whether your child is just starting out or already deep into the fundamentals, there is a path at Strive for where they are right now. Strive Coding starts with Python and real projects your child can share. Students who master those seven units progress to working like professional developers at Strive AI-First Software Development. That is the stage where Ethan's browser, his exam system, and his software studio became possible.