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Click-A-Brick has announced that its initial offering, the Animal Kingdom Safari building toy set, turned out to be more popular with girls than boys. About 67 percent of people who purchased the set did so for a girl. This has company Co-Founders Jason Smith and Georg de Gorostiza pleased, as they are happy to be offering a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) toy that girls seem to be gravitating to.
Getting girls interested in the STEM fields is a goal for most toy companies offering educational toys, the company co-founders say, and they like the fact that they’re helping to draw girls in with their own educational toy, even if it wasn’t quite planned that way.
“The Animal Kingdom Safari set was meant to be unisex, because we knew animals would appeal to all children,” Smith said. “But, we figured because it’s a building set that we’d naturally just get more boys interested in it. So, when the numbers came back and it turns out the majority of customers were buying it for a girl, we were surprised, but pleasantly so. We’re aware of the ongoing debate about gender specific toys and efforts to get more girls interested in the STEM fields. When it happens naturally like this, it’s just kind of a bonus.”
The company considers all of its sets, whether already released or due to be released, as unisex, regardless of colors and what the sets are meant to build. Its current Army Defenders set, which traditionally would be considered more of a boys theme, was actually named by a girl in a Facebook contest and the company encourages parents to consider their toys as unisex, as well.
Plans for future sets include the simultaneous release of a bird-themed set and a construction vehicle-themed set, tentatively set for July. Both Smith and de Gorostiza predict the bird set will do well with girls, much like the Animal Kingdom Safari set did. They also have plans to eventually release a set that is aimed at girls with more traditional elements that one would see in a toy specifically for girls.
“Anything that we can do on our end to encourage girls to take in interest in the so-called STEM fields is something we’re interested in,” Smith said. “Being able to build something — whether it’s a giraffe, a pink unicorn or a fighter jet — may stimulate an interest in engineering for a girl and we like to think that in twenty years, there will be female engineers out there who got that initial spark of interest from playing with a Click-A-Brick set.”
Release ID: 82554