Earlier this year, Lego debuted their Lego Friends line aimed towards girls. The line was not without some controversy both within the Lego community and to those who felt it was stereotyping girls.
What is so different about the Lego Friends? The Lego Friends are a group of 5 girls that are more doll like than traditional mini-figures. The sets include an Invention Studio, a hair salon, a vet office, a fashion design studio, and a rock star stage. While a hair salon or a fashion design studio aren’t my top choices of sets to buy my daughter, I love the Invention Studio and that Olivia wants to be a scientist or an engineer.
In our experiences at Lego stores and at Lego events, the audience is primarily male, especially after the age of 7 or 8. This holds true for the AADL Lego building contest over the summer, Toys R Us building events, and shopping in the stores.
This weekend we attended the Alex’s Lemonade stand event at Toys R Us. The event was predominately girls, with only one boy there (an older brother). This was the opposite of what we usually see at Toys R Us building events where my daughter is one of the few girls (and often the only one without a brother).
Legos help to build design, engineering, and spatial relation skills which can be excellent skills in fields like architecture, engineering, and science. These fields are traditionally male dominated, so encouraging these skills in girls at a young age can help break stereotypes and gender barriers. If Legos had a gender balanced fan-base to begin with and then broke into a girls set, I could understand some of the complaints. But, if making things pretty will encourage girls to play with Legos and get into the Lego culture, I don’t really have a problem with it.
My daughter has loved Legos since before she was 1 with Duplo blocks. They were always her favorite toy when we frequented the AADL baby playgroups, she would find places that had a set and lead us over. She received multiple sets of Duplos and MegaBlocks for Christmas and her first birthday (only weeks apart). As she has gotten older, she has developed an interest in building the sets and it is something she does with her dad. We have all types of Lego Sets: City, Creator, Pharaoh’s Return, Dinos, Harry Potter, holiday, and yes, Lego Friends sets.
PS Is anyone saying that the Star Wars, Batman, or Spiderman Lego sets are stereotyping boys?
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