When you think of girls playing with Legos do you think of this?
Or this?
It's probably no surprise that I like the top image better! And I wish I could say the same for Lego executives. In the next few days Lego will roll out brand new sets designed for girls ages 5 and up, with the theme, "Friends." The sets were developed with four years (!) of research into what girls want from Legos. Some bloggers I love are trying to raise Lego's consciousness and I'm backing them up. Powered by Girl - PBG started the ball rolling. Supporters include Pigtail Pals Reel Girl Spark Summit.
My research was admittedly with a smaller sample. My daughters loved and played with Legos constantly back in the days before any "sets." They built their own people from the basic red, green, blue & yellow pieces because we didn't have any people in our tub of pieces. This led to people with wheels for feet and people of all shapes and sizes.
My point isn't to be nostalgic. Let's ask Lego to expand their vision of girls and their interests in the next round of sets they design for girls.
Just a suggestion, Lego: Take the four girls from The 4th Motor team of Wisconsin who won the 2011 First Robotics Lego League North American open robotics challenge (1st all-girl team to win)!
One of the team shared some of their experiences and hard work in New Moon Girls' March-April 2011 magazine and on newmoon.com. And here's some video of them winning the N.A. competition. All this, and a little herstory about the first computer programmer Ada Lovelace, encourages more girls to do creative problem-solving with Legos - inspiration, pure and simple.
This winning team of girls should lead development of Lego's next set for girls. I'm more than glad to help Lego learn out how to share power with girls in developing great products for them without reducing to lowest-common-denominator stereotypes. It can be done and sustained, as we've done for nearly 20 years now.
What do you say Lego?
If you want to share this idea with Lego write to them and also post your letter here or on Facebook:
LEGO Systems, Inc. 555 Taylor RoadP.O. Box 1138
Enfield, CT 06083-1138
