This is not a black and white case. You need to read Ryan Seay's side of the story to get a better perspective of how things likely went down - http://jacobsvsseay.com
She is dating Aaron O'Connell, one of the technical co-founders of 42Floors. So, she may have been fortunate enough to have someone coach her along the way and unblock her when needed. Irrespective of that, I still think this is an impressive accomplishment in its own right. How many seasoned developers do we know that can execute at this pace for so long?