Their Miss Possible line of dolls combines the appeal of American Girl with the skill development of GoldieBlox.
These young women have left Barbie so far behind.
The first doll will be the childhood version of Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist and physicist whose research led to breakthroughs on radioactivity. The second in the production line would be Bessie Coleman, the first African-American female aviator and first American to hold an international pilot’s license. The third woman they’ve chosen in their doll line-up is Ada Lovelace, known as the world’s first computer programmer.
Each doll will come with a smartphone app with a set of experiments and activities the child can do in the spirit of the doll’s namesake. The Marie Curie app will have instructions on making a compass, creating a chemical reaction with Elmer’s glue and experimenting with magnetism. It’s like a digital science kit with materials typically found in the house. The app also delves into the biography of the woman.
Toys can be powerful tools, letting children imagine a narrative of what’s possible in their own lives. But they have become increasingly gendered, pink, superficial and sexualized, since we were children.
(via Marie Curie prepares to throw down with Barbie : Parenting)