Anna Smeaton
Web Developer
Facilitator
HTML
CSS
JS
ReactJS
PHP
Laravel
About Me
Anna here. I'm a Brisbane-based web developer who traded chilly Scotland for Brisbane heat, and made an equally contrasting switch from facilitating and directing for theatre to being a professional coder! Welcome to annacodes.dev, where I'm fighting complacency and learning something new every week.
My Journey
Assistant Workshop Facilitator
Started helping with younger kids' classes at youth theatre
Theatre Studies Degree
4 years of deep diving into theatre history, policy and practice.
Discovered Coding
Caught the coding 'bug' during lockdown (pun intended). Getting back to my love of logic puzzles and problem solving (I was a Physics nerd at school).
Software Development Degree
Realising that coding could blend my love of problem solving with my creative side, I enrolled in a full-time MSc Software Development degree.
Facilitating Side Projects
Kept my facilitation skills sharp while studying, and even won a funding bid for a youth project in Paisley.
Moved to Australia
Finally made it back to Australia with my Aussie partner
Web Developer Career
Officially started working with PHP/Laravel, JS/React, MySQL and SCSS/CSS
Continuous Learning
The drive to keep learning and building is part of who I am. So here I am, creating a space to document my projects and share what I learn along the way.
Coding
I started my professional coding journey in January 2023, and it's been a non-stop adventure of learning and building ever since. My favorite part is the problem-solving - whether it's translating a designer's vision into a fully functional website or adding new features to our existing Laravel platforms. At the core of it all, my philosophy is simple: write clean, efficient backend code and create intuitive, seamless frontend experiences. As a good friend of mine once said, "always leave the code better than you found it."
Projects
Beyond Code
Where you'll find me when I'm not coding.
Brisbane Arts Theatre
Volunteer Director • Family Theatre
Directed a children's production, bringing together young performers and helping them discover the magic of storytelling on stage. This role combined my passion for nurturing young talent with the organizational and leadership skills that serve me well in tech teams.
Aerial Silks
Circus Arts • Proudly Amateur
Life is more fun upside down. My passion for aerial silks teaches me about perseverance, body awareness, and the beauty of combining strength with grace. Much like coding, it requires patience, practice, and the willingness to fail forward until you master each new skill.