“It’s OK to be a princess. We just think girls can build their own castles too.” – Debbie Sterling
Many of you will have seen this brilliant advert for Goldie Blox over the past few days. It has been everywhere from the Independent, to MTV to the Huffington Post. It is so full of infectious fun that it’s hard not to get caught up in it and press ‘share’. Go on, try it:
If you’re looking for a toy that will encourage your girls towards building and thinking spatially, then this is for you. The first Goldie Blox sets became available in February of 2013, after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Check out their launch video below.
Founder Debbie Sterling completed a degree in Mechanical Engineering/Product Design at Stanford University and was disappointed at the lack of women in her field. At the same time, she realised that the construction toys on the market had developed pink versions to appeal to the girls, creating a divide in how building toys were perceived by kids of both genders – and their parents. While brands like Lego occupied an entire aisle in big toy stores, the versions that were aimed at girls were in the ‘pink aisle’. No wonder the field of engineering was so male dominated. Sterling set out to disrupt the ‘pink aisle’ while getting girls building.
The first major obstacle in ‘disrupting the pink aisle’ was knocked down when Goldie Blox made it on to the shelves of major retailer Toys R Us in the US. This film of girls storming the shop captures how they must have felt achieving this goal.
Debbie Sterling isn’t trying to discourage girls away from pink and dressing up. As she says in her Kickstarter video, ‘I love those things too’. She’s just trying to get us to realise that little girls are more than just princesses; that they are capable of doing everything that boys can do; that if more girls got in to fields like engineering, then the whole world wouldn’t be built by mostly men.
The Fableists loves Goldie Blox and we have our set (two to avoid arguments!). It’s popular but also encourages teamwork and a feeling of achievement. We think it fits right in with our ethos about dressing all kids – girls and boys so that they are free to explore the world and become all that they can.
Let’s let Riley sum it up:
TheFableists 