GoldieBlox: Engineering toys for girls

GoldieBlox toys are making boys’ toys for girls to grow the next generation of lady engineers.

In a viral video of girls wearing pink tutus and princess dresses, one girl nails her ballerina slippers to a skateboard. Another attaches a sidecar to her purple tricycle so her teddy bear can ride along with her.

It’s all overlaid with the girls singing Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ as the little girl’s storm the pink aisle.

The start-up features Goldie, “the girl inventor who loves to build,” in story games that expose young girls to engineering. The debut toy, Goldie’s Spinning Machine, asks girls to build a belt drive to help Goldie’s dog to chase his tail.

Debra Sterling, an engineer, founded GoldieBlox last year in San Francisco.

“The odds are against us. We’ve been told that GoldieBlox can’t survive in mass stores next to Barbie. Convention says that engineering toys for girls are a “niche” for the affluent, and for the internet. Together, we must prove convention wrong,” writes Debra.