“When I came up with the idea of GoldieBlox… people in the toy industry told me I was crazy.” – GoldieBlox founder Debbie Sterling.
Last month, I reviewed a new type of toy – construction sets aimed at sparking an interest in engineering within young girls.
The company who makes them, GoldieBlox, was set up by Debbie Sterling. She’s an engineer, but became disillusioned by the lack of women working in this field. The GoldieBlox brand wants to turn this around.
It’s certainly an exciting new start-up. GoldieBlox came into existence thanks to a successful KickStarter campaign and earlier this year made history as the first small business to have a commercial aired during the Super Bowl. That’s no mean feat.
I was fortunate to catch up with Debbie when she came over to the UK towards the end of last month. We talked about GoldieBlox (naturally) and the problems she encountered when she first approached the toy industry with her idea.
They said ‘girls like dolls, boys like building – you can’t fight nature’.
We also chatted about the wider issue of women in engineering, the importance of female empowerment and how she hopes GoldieBlox will help “shake things up”.
You can watch Debbie’s interview with me here:
I could easily have talked to her about so much more, but unfortunately we ran out of time.
Debbie certainly raises some interesting points and I agree with her when she talks about inadvertently becoming a role model herself. She’s certainly showing young girls that your dreams can succeed if you work hard and believe in yourself.
Personally, I can’t wait to see what GoldieBlox does next. Olivia loves the construction sets and continues to play with them most days. She’s starting to experiment now and tries to design and build her own creations. I can’t wait to see where this takes her.
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Interesting points. Liv is as much into dolls as cars. She can play with whatever she likes in my opinion.
Some interesting points raised but I don’t see why people have to make an issue over what toy a child plays with.
It really annoys me when people start saying boys can’t play with dolls or kitchens, I mean honestly, really? Bit like saying your husband can’t make a cup of tea, which in my case is true 😉 x
I really like the look of the goldiebox sets, but I would rather have a world where toys weren’t aimed at one sex or the other. My daughter played with lego as much as my sons do!
My boys both had dolls prams and my girls love playing with lego and toy soldiers. I don’t think toys should be aimed at a particular gender.
In an ideal world you are absolutely right. It’s such a shame that toys are categorised into gender: I’ve had my three-year-old son watch a TV advert for a doll and say he can’t play with it because it’s for girls and my five-year-old daughter say that cars are for boys. We need these perceptions eradicated!
THANK YOU for this interview! I hadn’t come across Goldieblox before, and I was so excited to watch the video. I know that putting a gender split in toy marketing isn’t great, but in the case of science and engineering, so many toys are overtly or tacitly aimed at boys, that something needs to be done to redress the balance. I’m all for positive discrimination!
You are most welcome 🙂
I haven’t heard of this brand before but sounds pretty exciting. It’s so crucial to get more girls doing science subjects, so if this is what it takes, so be it.
Thanks for sharing! I can’ tat and how the toy industry pushes the whole pink for girls angle. My son likes playing with both dolls and cars. I’m looking forward to hearing more. X
Me neither. After speaking to Debbie I went into a few local toy shops and the whole ‘pink aisle’ thing really stood out.
Having a mix of boys and girls at home they all play with each others toys and I would happily buy eliza a boys toy if thats something she wanted
I grew up with meccano and lots of boys toys. I very nearly went in to engineering. I think this is great
Gender stereotypes are my pet peeve. Any sensible little girl would enjoy playing with building blocks. Just as any little boy can play with a doll and a pretend kitchen.
This woman looks so young!!!! I think it’s great she is challenging stereotypes and inspiring the next generation of budding female engineers 🙂
I know! But good on her for challenging perceptions. I still can’t believe the reaction she got from the toy industry to her idea – so out-of-date.
I let my girls play with what ever toy they likes even if it was boyish.In face my daughter asked to join cricket club and I let her.
when I was a kid I preferred cars and trains to dolls … I give my kids a freedom to choose a toy they want to play with.