Fasten your tool belts and pay attention: the “pink aisle” is becoming a thing of the past — at least if GoldieBlox has anything to say about it.
Almost one year ago we here at msnbc.com stumbled upon the toy company’s first video showing “young ballerinas with stuffed animal sidekicks wielding hammers, wearing tool belts, and creating their own inventions.” The message of the video resonated: girls shouldn’t feel confined to gender-specific toys; Barbies are great, but toys that promote invention and engineering are great, too. GoldieBlox’s second video — which received its fair share of press for both its message and its legal troubles — told us: “it’s time to change. We deserve to see a range, cause all our toys look just the same. And we would like to use our brains. We are all more than princess maids!”
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That inventive, creative attitude made its way to msnbc and into the hands of Political Playground star, Ella, along with GoldieBlox creator Debbie Sterling. Sterling explained that the inspiration for these toys came from her childhood and embody her desire to show that “girls can play with other things too. They don’t only have to play with dolls.”
Which is good. Ella doesn’t even “have that many Barbies” anyway.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW's senior congressional correspondent and the host of "Way Too Early." She is the author of "Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet."