Last year, Stanford engineering student Debbie Sterling founded GoldieBlox, a construction toy meant to "prove to the world that engineering for girls is a mainstream concept." The company strives to encourage little girls to remain interested in engineering by engaging them in story-oriented building (the way boys are regularly engaged by a slew of "male"-targeted toys.).
The GoldieBlox Kickstarter went on to raise $285,881 — well over its $150,000 goal — and now "GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine" will be distributed in a variety of toy stores (including Toys 'R' Us!).
If that's not enough to inspire you, here's an incredible GoldieBlox commercial. It features a cast of little girls repurposing their needlessly gendered toys and then racing to an all-pink Toys 'R' Us aisle — while wearing well-worn "More Than Just a Princess" t-shirts — in order to celebrate riotously. It's the tenderest mob to storm a massive corporate chain store in possibly all of recorded history.
(H/t BUST)