One of the main reasons why I maintain this site is to encourage people to build. Model cars are my personal preference, but I believe that creating tangible things of any kind is one of the great overlooked aspects of our current world. People create spreadsheets, presentations, texts, e-mails, and such...but at the end of the day, you can't pick up, hold, or feel the physical presence on any of those things. Girls are at an even greater disadvantage, as typically "feminine" pastimes and careers often downplay ideas like construction and maintenance in favor of concepts like fashion and celebrity. So when someone comes along to help encourage girls to do more "real world" hobbies, they get my attention.
Debbie Sterling has my attention.
A Stanford-trained mechanical engineer, Sterling was unhappy to see that women made up such a small percentage of her field - just around 11%, according to the National Science Foundation. So she approached the problem the same way she would any other engineering challenge: get to the root of the issue, and solve it there. After a year researching play habits, she developed a toy that introduced girls to the world of engineering while appealing to their strengths in reading and communication. That toy was GoldieBlox, a book and mechanics combination that lets readers follow along with the story and build machines along with the character.
I was able to see GoldieBlox firsthand at Toy Fair, and talk briefly with Sterling about it. Unlike other girl-themed building toys, which are usually little more than recolors of existing boys' toys with a licensed property added, this was built from the ground up to appeal to girls. When asked about the "girly" components used on GoldieBlox, Sterling's answer was both smart and honest: they're appealing. She's not out to redefine gender roles, or force girls to give up girly things...she just wants to expand their options, and introduce them to a world they may not have otherwise known about.
The success of its Kickstarter campaign, along with the overwhelmingly positive reaction from parents and kids (the entire first shipment of 18,000 sold out during pre-sales), have shown that others share her desire. Sterling looks to expand GoldieBlox to include more stories, more characters, and more elaborate engineering challenges.
You can find out more about the toy, and order the debut story
GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine, at
GoldieBlox.com
