What do toys, STEM education, and the Beastie Boys have in common?

Jan. 1, 2000

One toy company is hoping to motivate a generation of female engineers with a line of girl-friendly construction toys.

What are you going to buy your little princess this holiday season? The toy stores are filled with cute, pink-painted presents from fairies to dolls, stuffed animals to princesses. But not all little girls want to live in a castle or ride magical ponies. Some of them want to create and invent. For those girls, there is GoldieBlox.

According to the GoldieBlox website, girls lose interest in science, technology, engineering and math as early as age eight. GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation. Construction toys develop an early interest in these subjects, but for over a hundred years, they've been considered "boys' toys". By designing a construction toy from the female perspective, GoldieBlox aims to disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers.

Debbie Sterling is the founder and CEO of GoldieBlox. She graduated from Stanford with a degree in Mechanical Engineering/Product Design. Bothered by how few women there were in her program, Debbie decided to create a toy that would introduce girls to the joy of engineering at a young age.

GoldieBlox is actually a book and a construction toy combined. It stars Goldie, the girl inventor, and her crew of friends who go on adventures and solve problems by building simple machines. As girls read along, they get to build what Goldie builds using their toolkit.

The latest GoldieBlox ad features a reimagining of the Beastie Boys song “Girls.” The ad denounces the idea that girls are only interested in pink, pretty toys, as a group of girls engineer a Rube Goldberg machine.

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