Who is Kayla? According to hacker legend, she's a 16-year-old member of Anonymous subgroup LulzSec and a heartthrob to geek boys on three continents. On Tuesday, in Southwark Central Court in London, she entered a guilty plea on one count of "conspiring to do an unauthorized act to impair the operation of a computer or computers."
And then word got out. Kayla isn't a teenager. Kayla isn't a girl, either. Kayla's real name is Ryan Ackroyd, and he is 26 years old.
The Anonymous Solidarity Network responded with the tweet "We do not forget Ryan Ackroyd aka Kayla #FreeKayla" and a video proclaiming "Free Incarcerated Anons."
Ackroyd's teenage persona is typical of LulzSec, who always claimed to be in it for the laughs. Kayla was a drama-enhanced persona designed to gain the maximum number of fanboys in the shortest time. An empowered cyberpunk female teen hacker would out-draw pretty much anyone except a risen Steve Jobs in that kind of competition. Particularly after the audacious and much-publicized Gawker hack, Kayla's appeal was a central part of the cultural impact of LulzSec. Say what you will about their exploits, they certainly understood marketing.
http://www.dailydot.com/news/kayla-ryan-ackroyd-lulzsec-anonymous-guilty-plea/
This seems to highlight the absence of female figures in Anonymous, as they used this fake female persona to lure in more male supporters. They may also be attempting to shock the public as a teenage girl wouldn't be the typical computer hacker, its saying that absolutely anyone, however unlikely could be part of Anonymous, which I suppose is living up to its name! This would suggest the subculture was open to any gender or age groups not just the typical young male.
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