Young women in the engineering field never really had toys to play with that exposed them to engineering. Either one was stuck playing with a Barbie doll or pretended to be someone else together with friends. Little girls in the past were never really given the chance to explore science and engineering. This is why Debbie Sterling, an engineer who graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, decided to disrupt the “pink aisle”. Through her company, GoldieBlox, she has created toys that would let girls know more about the fun in engineering at a very young age.
Source: GoldieBlox
GoldieBlox has been around since 2012 and it’s becoming a game-changer in the toy industry. With a goal to empower little girls “to build their confidence, dreams and their future”, the company has created different products that incorporates the discipline of STEM to storytelling. It challenges the notion that little girls aren’t supposed to be in STEM once they grow up – something that inspired Sterling when she noticed that only few women attended the program she was in. GoldieBlox offers toys, animation, videos, apps, merchandise and books and is already making a name in children’s entertainment. It’s becoming so popular, it has sold over 1 million toys in over 6,000 major retailers around the world. Its app has over 1 million downloads, too.
Source: GoldieBlox
It’s been four years and even though they haven’t been here for a long time, they have won achievements such as The Toy Industry Association’s Toy of the Year and Apple’s iOS App of the Year awards. It was also included in Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list two years ago. Not only was the company garnering awards, Sterling has been recognized for her work as well. She was inducted as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship by President Obama. She was also honored at the National Women’s History Museum and National Retail Foundation.
Before she founded and became CEO of GoldieBlox, Sterling became a Brand Strategist for Hornall Anderson, a design company specializing in “ideation and creation of brands, products nd experiences”. She then moved on to becoming a Marketing Director for Lori Bonn Design, Inc. for two years and six months.
Source: GoldieBlox
As you scroll through the website of GoldieBlox, you will see different products for little girls. With a combination of a book series and a construction set, a little girl is tasked to help the character, Goldie, in solving problems by the simple machines she will build. When GoldieBlox first came out on Kickstarter, it was popular that it raised over $285,000 in just 30 days. Since then, Sterling and her company have been featured in several publications.
Don’t you wish you had these toys when you were still young? Well, it’s never too late to play with it with the little girls in your life.
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