Getting girls to play with/buy LEGO

[HumanPackMule]

Man, if I had a dollar for every AFOL that thought they knew how to market LEGO to girls! If there was a simple solution, I think it's safe to say TLG would have figured it out by now.

Keep in mind we're talking about the same people who gave us Galidor

BTW, should we have a contest for making a theme for girls?

[Sandy]

BTW, should we have a contest for making a theme for girls?

Ooh, that would be a fantastic contest! Maybe we could even hold an entire FAFOL theme month, to celebrate the girliness in all of us.

[posades]

Why not just bring back Paradisa; heck even I liked Paradisa back in the day, and I think I turned out alright.

[Sandy]

Why not just bring back Paradisa; heck even I liked Paradisa back in the day, and I think I turned out alright.

I don't think you quite grasped what so many of the ladies here are saying: they want to build, too. I thought Paradisa was nice, but it takes more than whipping up a couple of female minifigs, sticking a palmtree on a baseplate and call it a set to get the long-lasting attention of females, both young and old.

I still think that a modular family house with the furniture coming in separate sets (akin to the house Playmobil has produced) would be a smash hit. It wouldn't be just a dollhouse, you could customize it whichever way you want thanks to everything being brickbuilt. I am sure many little girls would love that, and some grown-up girls too.

These MOC-examples show what I'm talking about:

Dollhouse 1

Dollhouse 2

[Tom Bricks]

BTW, should we have a contest for making a theme for girls?

Yes, yes we should. I all ready have ideas forming.

I grew up with 4 sisters and the first Lego I got came from them. They were never really into Lego but did enjoy playing with it as well as building. I believe that part of the reason many girls don't like Lego as much is that they are way under represented in the Minifigures. I can remember growing up when I had 2 female figures and my sisters did not appreciate that very much at all. Not being able to see themselves as a minifig may be one of the reasons.

[Dutch]

Ooh, that would be a fantastic contest! Maybe we could even hold an entire FAFOL theme month, to celebrate the girliness in all of us.

So that's the reason why I like pink so much.

Edited August 7, 2009 by clone killer

[posades]

I don't think you quite grasped what so many of the ladies here are saying: they want to build, too. I thought Paradisa was nice, but it takes more than whipping up a couple of female minifigs, sticking a palmtree on a baseplate and call it a set to get the long-lasting attention of females, both young and old.

I still think that a modular family house with the furniture coming in separate sets (akin to the house Playmobil has produced) would be a smash hit. It wouldn't be just a dollhouse, you could customize it whichever way you want thanks to everything being brickbuilt. I am sure many little girls would love that, and some grown-up girls too.

These MOC-examples show what I'm talking about:

Dollhouse 1

Dollhouse 2

Well that's the thing, out of all the "girlie" attempts TLG has put out there I think Paradisa was most like any of their other themes in that there were standard vehicles and buildings you could make; I remember my sister longing to get Rolling Acres Ranch which had both those things.

[blueandwhite]

As a gal, I have some ideas on this...

I've noticed lately that more female minifigs are showing up, but they're still few and far between. Why are there no strong female characters? And why does the castle queen not have legs?? It bothers me. If we have capes, why can't we have fabric skirts so she can have actual legs under there? Miniskirts for city would be so awesome!

Honestly, I like the castle Queen the way she is. Even better is the fact that she has no crownie logo on her making the fig very useful for any castle faction. I'm not sure how I'd feel about cloth skirts given that LEGO has a long tradition of uisng 2x2x2 slopes for skirts. They may not be perfect, but they work quite well. Also, "strong" is a very subjective term. While the Queen fig certainly isn't a warrior, her demeanor and facial expression certainly convey a certain degree of authority. One of the challenges with a medieval theme is that we don't traditionally associate females with prominent roles in that time period (of course, there are exceptions such as Joan of Arc). While I wouldn't mind another female knight to go with KKI's Princess Storm (horrible name), I don't see it happening in the near future. I'm just pleased that we received so many (6) female figs from the Castle theme.

[______]

Most women in any Lego castle themes are Queens' or Princesses' (not true for market village). I would like a female knight or soldier in the battle pack at least.

[Princess Muttonchops]

At the risk of having virtual pens and paper balls hurled at me (imagining that we're all in some virtual boardroom, discussing this troubling issue), I think the core of the problem is that the powers-that-be at Lego marketing seem to have a stuffy, old-age view of girls in general. The severe lack of female mini-figs in the "normal" city sets is astonishing. Any female mini-figs included are at best token females, with no clearly defined role besides their obvious femininity. I would love to see female cops, female firefighters, female rescue workers. Seriously, give the girls something to do, Lego! Why do we need to have sets specifically designed to capture girls' hearts anyway? Mini-figs are adorable enough without making them pink and frilly. My nine-year old daughter loves playing with the mini-figs, whether they're "girlified" or not. To be honest, I don't mind the Belville line, but as many people have pointed out, the pieces are hard to build freely with, being so big and chunky. This isn't going to encourage girls to be creative with Lego. So, in summary (imagining that I'm pointing at a virtual whiteboard, covered with confusing, messy diagrams), we don't need "special" Lego for girls, we just need to demolish this "him"/"her" mentality that is currently so prevalent. Break down the gender walls, Lego, and set our children's minds free!!!...A heavy silence falls over the virtual boardroom...

[brickzone]

Lego are probably constrained by their existing customers in what steps they can take. I think the more prevalent female minifigs is an improvement and hopefully it will be built on. I think Lego could have moved in this direction sooner too, but it did take some good product development I think to come up with recent sets - they are a bit more inventive in making "everyday life" be fun play. I think that's something that appeals to a section of boys too who aren't as interested in the standard just action themes, police/robbers, fire/emergency etc. Also today I think some of the more traditional boys have been lost to the toy market due to video games, meaning Lego had to broaden its appeal.

Mind you I think Lego did pretty well with Fabuland back in the day, but it probably wouldn't work as well today as back then.

It wasn't just Paradisa in early 90s either - some of the ordinary sets were a bit like todays city sets in having female minifigs and sets with more "everyday life" play value.

I think even if Lego reach more girls with the standard Lego line, it makes sense to have something like Belville for "girly" girls (and there are plenty of those even today).

[Go Cubs Go!]

Belville people are kind of scary looking

I agree with that girl completely.

From, Go Cubs Go!

[Millacol88]

I agree with that girl completely.

From, Go Cubs Go!

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but I don' think Eilif is a girl.

[Emperor Claudius Rome]

At the risk of having virtual pens and paper balls hurled at me (imagining that we're all in some virtual boardroom, discussing this troubling issue), I think the core of the problem is that the powers-that-be at Lego marketing seem to have a stuffy, old-age view of girls in general. The severe lack of female mini-figs in the "normal" city sets is astonishing. Any female mini-figs included are at best token females, with no clearly defined role besides their obvious femininity. I would love to see female cops, female firefighters, female rescue workers. Seriously, give the girls something to do, Lego! Why do we need to have sets specifically designed to capture girls' hearts anyway? Mini-figs are adorable enough without making them pink and frilly. My nine-year old daughter loves playing with the mini-figs, whether they're "girlified" or not. To be honest, I don't mind the Belville line, but as many people have pointed out, the pieces are hard to build freely with, being so big and chunky. This isn't going to encourage girls to be creative with Lego. So, in summary (imagining that I'm pointing at a virtual whiteboard, covered with confusing, messy diagrams), we don't need "special" Lego for girls, we just need to demolish this "him"/"her" mentality that is currently so prevalent. Break down the gender walls, Lego, and set our children's minds free!!!...A heavy silence falls over the virtual boardroom...

Well the chances of that are against the demograghics. (pulls out gragh) As you can see: The ammount of Tomboys between girls ages 7-13 is quite low. Ever wonder how stuff like "Hannah Montana" or "The Jonas Brothers" became popular? It's because of the amount of "Girly" gils out there.

So that's not going to happen that soon.

[Peppermint_M]

At the risk of having virtual pens and paper balls hurled at me (imagining that we're all in some virtual boardroom, discussing this troubling issue), I think the core of the problem is that the powers-that-be at Lego marketing seem to have a stuffy, old-age view of girls in general. The severe lack of female mini-figs in the "normal" city sets is astonishing. Any female mini-figs included are at best token females, with no clearly defined role besides their obvious femininity. I would love to see female cops, female firefighters, female rescue workers. Seriously, give the girls something to do, Lego! Why do we need to have sets specifically designed to capture girls' hearts anyway? Mini-figs are adorable enough without making them pink and frilly. My nine-year old daughter loves playing with the mini-figs, whether they're "girlified" or not. To be honest, I don't mind the Belville line, but as many people have pointed out, the pieces are hard to build freely with, being so big and chunky. This isn't going to encourage girls to be creative with Lego. So, in summary (imagining that I'm pointing at a virtual whiteboard, covered with confusing, messy diagrams), we don't need "special" Lego for girls, we just need to demolish this "him"/"her" mentality that is currently so prevalent. Break down the gender walls, Lego, and set our children's minds free!!!...A heavy silence falls over the virtual boardroom...

We've been trying to break down gender stereotypes for generations... So far it isn't that successful, there are small steps taken and maybe someday soon construction won't be seen as a boys thing on the whole. I think I said something sociological a few pages back to that effect.

[The Who]

I would love to see female cops, female firefighters, female rescue workers.

Maybe they don't have them because of all of the perverted AFOLs out there.

(Seriously. Think about it.)

Break down the gender walls, Lego, and set our children's minds free!!!...A heavy silence falls over the virtual boardroom...

Oh, real nice. That boardroom wouldn't be in Berlin, by chance?

[posades]

Well the chances of that are against the demograghics. (pulls out gragh) As you can see: The ammount of Tomboys between girls ages 7-13 is quite low. Ever wonder how stuff like "Hannah Montana" or "The Jonas Brothers" became popular? It's because of the amount of "Girly" gils out there.

So that's not going to happen that soon.

Err, my niece plays with Barbies, My Little Ponies, stuffed animals and dolls, and she also happens to like LEGO. You may want to check your graph again because I'm not so sure just "tomboy" girls are into LEGO.

I specifically remember having female cops in some of my old Police sets, so I don't see why there shouldn't be some in the new line. Having said that, it's not that hard to make a female officer yourself which is actually what my niece does at times (also applies to aliens and whatnot ).

[mcfarlandman]

I was browsing the LEGO aisle the other day with my girlfriend and we came across one of those pink tub lego starter sets and it got me thinking - why isn't lego as popular with girls? My girlfriend said that girls who might play with lego don't want pink pink pink - if they like that they'll go for the barbies/bratz dolls - and therefore the "pink tub" wasn't the way to get girls into lego. She suggested a fairy tale theme (mermaids and fairies) and a zoo theme.

Thinking back to my childhood, my little sister was always most interested in my lego animals. She built them barns and pastures and "habitats" as she called them.

So what do you guys think? As a math/science teacher in training I'd love to see more girls interested in building, math, engineering and the like (areas that I feel like lego and other construction toys give boys a leg up in). What could lego do to appeal to girls? Obviously including more non-helpless/captured female figs would help along with including females in those golden $10 range sets.

[Brickdoctor]

Well there is still Belville...

Though that is kinda <insert that tiresome argument>. I think TLG just doesn't target older girls. And I don't think all of those would exactly go nuts over mermaids and fairies, either. But a System fairytale line could be good; I mean, in recent years LEGO for girls has done everthing from Duplo to jewlery, but only the Pink Tub is in System scale. (and that is really just a collection of basic bricks like all tubs) I think the key here is to continue to expand the civilian side of Castle, add some generic peasant families and some Royal Carraiges with Princesses inside. But keep it realistic. Mermaids are okay, they're like dragons in that you can incorproate them without delving to far into fantasy, but stay away from the magic if you tie this into Castle. Besides, if these were well-designed civilian Castle sets, you could please a lot of AFOLs at the same time.

[Rick]

It's been discussed over a year ago. I think the topic is roughly the same.

[Izzy]

Being a girl myself and having a three year old daughter I can tell you a thing or two about what we like.

I bought that Pink tub myself, just to add a few pink pieces to my collection, as I hadn't got any from any sets I had bought. But I love minifigs. I love to mix and match and create a Fig that looks like everyone I know. I have noticed while feeling up the Collectible Minifigs packs in different stores that there are a lot of little girls picking these up too. So I guess I am not the only one.

I am very much looking forward to one of the POTC sets, because of the 2 new Mermaids. Not for me, but so I can make my daughter some Little Mermaid MOCs to play with. Sure I get heaps of enjoyment out of that too.

My daughter loves the animals. I think she would love a zoo theme. I have separated all my small and large animals from the rest of my pieces and she loves to play with them. All the frogs and spiders and parrots and owl.... Then the horses and pigs and ostriches too. She always makes cages (just a square or rectangle shape out of bricks on a base) and then plays with them. So I think a zoo set or range of animals, African, Australian whatever would really be appreciated by us both. She has been having a lot of fun lately with the Santa and little train from the 2010 City Advent Calendar too. Again putting the small animals like kittens in the carriages and flying it around.

I was having a conversation just yesterday with a friend who has a 5 year old daughter, and she wants to buy her more LEGO but looked around and it all seemed so Boy oriented to her. I told her to get the Pink Bucket as she was complaining that all her pieces are only Red, Blue, Yellow and White. There is definitely people out there wanting more Girly themes, I hope TLG picks that up really soon.

But most of all, to get girls of a great range of ages to buy a LEGO product. I think the best best best thing TLG could do, is BRING BACK FABULAND!!!!!!

[mcfarlandman]

Thanks for the link Rick - I searched "girls" instead of "girl" and missed that The forum gods may do what they wish with this one.

I definitely agree on the minifigs - not only have I seen lots of girls going for them, but there's also actually a lot of girl minifigs in them. I've actually had girls ask me to pick them up certain minifigures once they've seen mine (easier said than done...)

A "nice" fairytale theme could go a long ways for girls, boys, and AFOLs. If the Fantasy line was Lord of the Rings, I picture this as more similar to Narnia - lots of animals and adventure minus any troll battle wheels...

[Izzy]

I definitely agree on the minifigs - not only have I seen lots of girls going for them, but there's also actually a lot of girl minifigs in them. I've actually had girls ask me to pick them up certain minifigures once they've seen mine (easier said than done...)

So true, actually 2 of my sisters have asked for different Figs from Series 3. One a Zombie/Mummy and one a Sumo and neither of them are into LEGO in the slightest.

[AndyC]

But most of all, to get girls of a great range of ages to buy a LEGO product. I think the best best best thing TLG could do, is BRING BACK FABULAND!!!!!!

Fabuland was my first thought too, that and Castle were always the ones my sister's seemed most interested in. Dare I suggest that a somewhat de-<insert that tiresome argument> Fabuland would be even better as it would encourage the building element more than the original and the modern range of pieces are more suited to brick building some of the structures than in the past.

As slightly stereotypical as it sounds, making hospitals as regular a theme as police/fire would probably help too. Girls like playing nurse. A significant proportion of our family Lego was always allocated to some sort of multicolour hospital full of apparently injured minifigs.

[Tazmaniac]

I think the CMF's have helped get more fans from both sex, But as my partner or my 3 year old daughter will tell you "faeries" would sell like hot cakes, not licensed would be better but if you had to do "Tinker Bell" then so be it. I think a lot of greenery would make this theme attractive non-female MOCers as well.