Wednesday 20 November 2013

The Princess Machine

Only 1 in 10 engineers are female.
 It's definitely time to fix that shocker of a statistic and to do so, it may be worthwhile taking a look at our childhood. A time where most of us spend our hours napping (I still do) and watching cartoons (again I still do), playing with toys is a past time that takes up a great deal of our time as children. However, the toys that we are exposed to are those that manufacturers think that we want. Girls around the world are encouraged to play with anything in the shade of pink, ranging from Barbie dolls to kitchen sets and playhouses, whereas toys that encourage engineering-minds to grow, build and invent are marketed as toys for boys. 



Source: TrendsActive


I myself remember growing up surrounded by my Barbie doll friends and having several teddy bear picnics with delicious imaginary food, however my now engineer sister somehow managed to break outside of this girly mould. I would spot her taking apart things such as the TV remote control just to figure out how to put it back together and being far more interested in how things work as opposed to how much hair to cut off her doll to give her the make over of her life (RIP to all of my doll's hair). At the time, I just saw it as an odd past time to have, however looking back she was simply looking to the world around her in order to fulfil the engineering-mind that she clearly had and still has to this day.


It is this inquisitive, inventive mind of the budding engineer that San Francisco toy company GoldieBlox are harnessing  in order to inspire the next generation of female engineers. They aim to provide girls with toys that offer more than what is found in the 'Princess Machine' world of the girls toy aisle of today.


GoldieBlox have released the clever advert below showcasing some serious girl power that rivals even that of the Spice Girls and possibly even Queen Bee herself. (Sorry Beyoncé) Now that's some powerful stuff. Watch the empowering video below featuring the best Rube Goldberg machine I've seen and share it with girls and mothers that you know to encourage them to dream outside of the pink and blue boundaries that society has taught us from such a young age. 





"For the past 100 years, construction toys have inspired our boys to be thinkers, builders, and inventors. Our girls deserve the same...I created GoldieBlox because I believe that every girl is more than just a princess, despite what the pink aisle tells them. In under a year, we've grown from a home- made prototype to the shelves of Toys R Us. To survive next to Barbie, we need your help disrupting the pink aisle. Oh, and if we win we've got a group of 6 year old girls ready to rush the end zone. In tutus. "- Debbie Sterling Founder / Chief Officer of Fun


Vote for Goldieblox to win the chance of airing this advert at the Super Bowl here

-Nikita

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