| Photos Courtesy of: | GoldieBlox |
| Company Site: | www.goldieblox.com |
GoldieBlox is a fairly new construction toy for girls. That’s right! This toy is meant for girls! (but boys can play too!) I haven’t gotten this yet but I cannot wait to get it for my daughter! There just aren’t enough toys for girls that focus on STEM fields.
In case you aren’t familiar with STEM it stands for Science Technology Engineering Math. Clever huh? I NEVER knew what STEM stood for until this past year and only heard the term a few years ago. Honestly I assumed it was just something to do with education like a new test or something.
GoldieBlox offers girls an engineering role model who is smart, curious, accessible and feminine. Goldie’s goal: To get girls interested in engineering, build self-confidence and inspire the next generation of girls to be the builders of our future.
Here is the video that caught my (and the rest of the world’s) attention! I LOVE this version of the song!
I know the girls in the video didn’t do all the setup or planning for that HUGE and elaborate Rube Goldberg but they did give input and help and from what I understand they followed along pretty well on how it works. Both of my kids saw this video and now want to build things…in fact my son and daughter (ages 5 and 3) went straight for our wooden blocks and began building elaborate towers and things. We will be investing in toys like this now.
Engineers help solve some of our biggest technological, physical and environmental challenges. They are critical to the world economy, earn high salaries and have solid job security. They are 89 percent male. For the past 100 years, toys aimed at boys have inspired them to become builders and inventors, while toys for girls largely ignored those building blocks. Now is the time for little girls to be more than just a princess.
GoldieBlox launched on Kickstarter in the fall of 2012 with the goal of raising $150,000 to fund production. Within four days, the initial goal had been met. In 30 days, over 5,000 supporters had contributed more than $285,000. Less than a year later, GoldieBlox made its way from the crowdsourcing pages of Kickstarter to the aisles of America’s largest toy retailer, Toys ‘R’ Us.
I am all about finding new and fun ways to introduce STEM to both my kids and this toy was a brilliant idea on how to get girls more involved. As a bonus it does disrupt the “pink aisle” which I also love. No there is nothing wrong with princesses, dolls, Barbie type dolls (I am sort of anti-Barbie…) or tea parties. My daughter loves all of those things too but sometimes she is Batman (in black….not pink) at her tea parties and sometimes her “baby” is a little purple Frankenstein looking doll called Frankenbaby.
Debbie Sterling is the mind behind this brilliant toy and here is how GoldieBlox came to be:
A Sunday brunch paved the way for a revolution. Around the table that day, Stanford Engineering graduate Debbie Sterling found herself immersed in a conversation with her girlfriends about the gender gap in STEM fields. Why do women still only make up 11 percent of the engineering industry, they wondered? That conversation piqued Debbie, fueled the idea for GoldieBlox and helped spawn a movement to disrupt pink toy aisles across the country.
Months of research later, Debbie found that simply creating a pink building toy wasn’t enough. Young girls are far more avid readers than boys, and they internalize and learn more effectively through storytelling. Her breakthrough marries the story of Goldie, a girl inventor who loves to build, with a construction kit. GoldieBlox offers girls an engineering role model who is smart, curious, accessible and feminine. Goldie’s goal: To get girls interested in engineering, build self-confidence and inspire the next generation of girls to be the builders of our future.
Now about the toy itself. Like I said I haven’t gotten to play it yet…I mean my daughter hasn’t got to try it yet…right. It looks like fun though and I LOVE the focus on engineering! Diva already loves to build with blocks and we have a HUGE Lego collection. She is currently on Duplos and loves to build towers and 2-4 brick buildings for cities.
No more manual: Toss the instructions!
GoldieBlox storybooks leverage girls’ verbal skills to get them engaged in building from the first page.
Tools of the trade: Goldie’s tool kit includes colors, textures and components that girls are familiar with.
Goldie’s crew: Goldie’s friends, an adorable group of animal characters, inspire girls to
build adventures together.
About the inventor!
Debbie Sterling, Founder and “Chief Officer of Fun” Debbie Sterling is an engineer by training and the founder of GoldieBlox. Her mission in life is to tackle the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math. In high school, Debbie had a chance conversation with her math teacher about exploring a career in engineering. Before that day, the only engineers she knew of were train conductors. Debbie’s goal is to ensure that girls have the opportunity to develop the skills they need to become the next generation’s great builders and inventors, whether or not they are lucky enough to have a serendipitous conversation with their math teacher.
Prior to founding GoldieBlox, Debbie served as a brand strategy consultant for a wide variety of organizations, including Microsoft, T-Mobile, Organic Valley and the New York Knicks. She holds a BS, Engineering from Stanford University and lives with her husband in San Francisco.
I understand that while this is more for girls it isn’t only for girls. I believe it focusses on girls more because there are so many girl toys but not enough that focus on STEM careers. I know Lego tried with their “Friends” which admittedly does get girls interested in building Legos but they could have just added things girls like instead of changing Legos. Anyway…that is a different post.
I will be getting this (or something like it or both) for her this year for sure. She is my little Diva Princess but that shouldn’t stop her from being anything else she wants to be. Toys like this will help get her thinking about fields she may not have thought about and to be perfectly honest, probably fields I didn’t think about for her. I hope more toys like this get made so my Princess and others like her can grow up to be more than just a Princess.
All italicized text is direct from the company.
