I probably shouldn’t be admitting this, but I didn’t realize until just now that Mavis Beacon wasn’t real.

I never used the software, but I remember seeing it a lot from when I was a kid. I was never fully clear on who exactly Mavis Beacon was—I just assumed she’d written a popular book or something that helped people learn typing, and the software was part of that.

Mavis Beacon is how I learned to touch type 25 years ago!

For a great modern app with a lot of features check out https://type-fu.com/

The MacOS app is nice and it also works on the web and other platforms.

https://typing.io/ is also cool, it has exercises for typing code.

I’m still shaken over the fact that Mavis Beacon was a made up character.

As a kid I had felt really encouraged that this nice woman was able to take her typing skills and turn it into this awesome software company.

No joke, hit me a lot harder than finding out Santa wasn’t real.

I still have the beginning of the Mavis Beacon text used for our weekly typing test at school seared into my brain: "It was so nice to see you the other day at the annual general meeting...