building with girls

I’m writing this after spending far too much time on the Lego website a couple days ago, agonizing over how to get Birdie to be more interested in regular old Legos. She, of course, wants only the Lego Friends sets come Christmas time. And as much as I’d like to boycott Lego Friends for making such a girlie-girlie theme (why not just add to the City collection? Why do they need all that pink?! But I digress), I know she will play with them. So they’re on the list. But, I’m excited to see more sets like these awesome Storywalls on Kickstarter.

From one toy designer (me) to another (the founder of Storywalls), let me just say I’m loving the simple innovations behind these Storywalls. Some wood and some magnets are all that’s needed to create these completely rearrangeable, build-able, interchangeable structures. Whether you choose the house, the vet clinic, or the surfsiide cafe, kids can recombine them in a ton of combinations to create just what they want to. Plus, the illustrations tie right into the story-telling side of girl play – which appears to be one of the biggest differences between girls and boys. (Sigh, yes, there are differences. Equal but different right?)

So might I suggest you click through to Storywalls and add your small or large contribution to their Kickstarter campaign? I think it’s going to be a great batch of toys!