I'd like you all to close your eyes
closed okay now you can't see me right
now but I'm actually riding a unicycle
juggling hundreds of balls keep your
eyes closed though it's really great but
okay so close your eyes and picture an
engineer everyone got a picture in their
head nod for you okay open your eyes
raise your hand if you pictured a guy
sitting alone in a computer okay
maybe kind of nerdy pocket protector
raise your hand if you pictured a train
driver
that's a lot of hands raise your hand if
you pictured a young guy in a hoodie
maybe looks a little like Mark
Zuckerberg perhaps raise your hand if
you pictured someone who looks like me
okay not a lot of hands well if you
didn't raise your hand for me I'd like
you to please get up and leave now just
kidding
if you didn't raise your hand for me
it's alright I get it all the time
usually when I tell people I'm an
engineer they look at me and they say ah
no really what do you do or they look at
me and say oh oh oh you must be some
kind of genius or my favorite is when I
told my mother I wanted to major in
engineering
she said you why the truth is I'm a
female engineer and I'm a minority only
11% of Engineers in the u.s. or women so
why does this matter why do we care so
what let's just have the men do all the
engineering well
engineers are making some of the biggest
advances in our society they're solving
things like global warming making
medical breakthroughs some of the
biggest technologies that are changing
our lives these are things that we use
every day as people that make our lives
better and with half the population
being female we deserve to have the
female perspective it'll only get better
with the female perspective but today
engineering really is a boys club and I
don't fit in but I'm here today to share
my story about how I discovered a
passion for engineering and I'm here to
make a bold claim I don't fit in but I
believe that our little girls will so
this is me when I was a little girl age
six I was a pretty normal kid I loved
ballet and drawing and riding bikes I
grew up in a small town in Rhode Island
age six coincidentally this is around
the age where most girls start to lose
an interest in math and science this
young and
interesting some people think well
biologically maybe girls just aren't as
good at those subjects and that's just
the way it is you can't fight nature
well there was a study done very
recently across 65 countries around the
world where they tested boys and girls
on the same science test around the
world girls outperformed the boys but
not in the u.s. what this study suggests
is that it's not a biological thing this
is a cultural thing and this is our
culture this is what we grow up in as
girls the toy aisle the perfect example
of our culture where we are taught from
a very young age that we want to become
princesses I remember when I was a
little girl adults would Pat me on the
head I'll actually I come from a Jewish
family so they would grab me by the
punim and say Debbie you are so smart
good for you and I remember as a little
girl being so disappointed wishing that
they told me I was pretty I wanted to be
pretty I didn't want to be smart by the
time my senior year of high school
rolled around I was applying to college
and I asked my math teacher to write my
recommendation letter and she said okay
Debbie well why do you plan to major in
I'll write it in the letter and I said I
don't know she said how about
engineering I think you would really
excel in it and I thought engineering I
closed my eyes and I pictured a train
driver
I had no idea what engineering was and I
was way too embarrassed to ask her I
didn't want to sound stupid but I
thought oh no way
you engineering that's for boys it's
intimidating and boring and why would
she ever think that a creative artistic
girl like me would ever like engineering
no way but I went off to Stanford which
was a big deal in my high school they
actually announced it over the
loudspeaker and when I got to Stanford
my freshman year I had no idea what to
major in and that that message that that
math teacher had said engineering you
should give it a try it's stuck in my
head and so I thought what the heck I'm
gonna take Emmy 101 just give it a try
because I couldn't shake that advice
that she had given me and I was so
worried that it was going to be my first
F I was terrified but I went into the
class and in that class I finally knew
learned what engineering really was and
to my surprise we weren't fixing train
engines in that class we got to invent
and design things we had assignments
like make a catapult out of a soda
bottle and a piece of string and five
paper clips and a piece of foam core it
was so cool and so much fun and in that
class I learned that engineering is
really the skill set to build anything
you dream up in your head whether it's a
web site or a mobile app to a bridge to
a highway anything that's what engineers
build and what an amazing skill set how
empowering to be able to build whatever
you want but the problem was I felt kind
of alone I was always one of a handful
of girls in my classes and I did not fit
in in fact only 20 percent of
undergraduate degrees in engineering and
tech and science are awarded to women so
it's a real problem but I stuck with it
I loved the major and I wanted to do it
that is until I took an engineering
drawing class
this was about halfway through my major
and I thought engineering drawing this
is going to be great I love art finally
I'm gonna get to draw the problem was in
this class you had to draw in
perspective draw in 3d and for some
reason I had this total mental block I
was really struggling with the material
and our final assignment we had to put
our drawings up on the wall for critique
and you could tell all the guys in the
class there were about 80 of them and
five of us girls the guys had scribbled
their drawing
ten minutes before and slapped it up on
the wall I mean why I had spent hours
the entire weekend I didn't even go to
any parties working on my drawing and
when the professors went around the room
and they got to my drawing they took a
look at it and they looked out into the
room and they said raise your hand if
you think Debbie should pass this class
and I just did there
beet-red humiliated looking around some
people are kind of half raising their
hands I was horrified and they're like
come on raise your hand if you think
Debbie should pass the class the room
was silent finally my good friend piped
up and said how dare you how dare you
humiliate her in front of this room she
obviously has put a lot of effort in and
it's your responsibility to teach her
not to make fun of her well I'm glad he
said that but even still the tears were
streaming down my face I ran out of the
classroom and I thought this isn't for
me I'm not naturally good at this stuff
maybe I should just give up engineering
a lot of girls around this time in their
college career think the same thing but
my friend came out and he said Debbie
don't give up you can do it and I'll
help you we just have to work hard
together you'll pick up this stuff I
know you will so him and I used to go
from that moment on to the library and
sometimes we'd be there till 3:00 4:00
in the morning studying and in that
library I saw all of those guys from my
classes the guys who I thought just knew
it and it was so easy for them they were
there at the library at 3:00 in the
morning I caught them
and I realized that it's not about being
a born genius it's about how hard you
work this stuff takes a lot of work but
I worked really hard and I redid that
drawing and I earned my degree years
later I did some research into this
stuff and I actually learned that I was
at a disadvantage like a lot of other
girls I had underdeveloped spatial
skills
the other interesting thing that I
learned is that kids who score better on
spatial skills tests grew up playing
with construction toys I thought isn't
this a shame me and my little sister
growing up our parents never bought us
Legos or erector sets or Lincoln Logs we
all thought that those were boys toys I
thought those toys have been marketed to
boys for over 100 years and they get
them interested in math and science
meanwhile all we get are the dolls and
makeup kits and it's not fair so I
thought well I'm an engineer now I have
a degree I can make anything I want now
I'm gonna make an engineering toy for
girls and I'm going to give them the
opportunity that I didn't have so that
they can discover a passion for
engineering much earlier than I did so I
got to work I quit my job and I worked
out of my apartment for months making a
prototype out of thread spools and
wooden dowels pieces I could find from
the hardware store I wanted to find a
way to help girls develop their spatial
skills I did all of this research I met
with little girls and I found something
really interesting
I'd buy construction toys and watch them
play with them to see how they could be
improved and time and time again
the girls would get bored with the toys
and so I'd say well then what is your
favorite toy and they'd run upstairs and
they'd bring back down a book and they'd
say I love reading let's read together
so I came up with a really simple aha
idea what if I put those two things
together speacial plus verbal a
Construction Set plus stories and what
if those stories were about a girl
engineer character
goldieblox and she goes on adventures
she solves problems by building simple
machines and so the girls read along
they get to build with Goldie and it
would bring in a role model and it would
bring in the narrative that they so
loved I made this prototype and I went
around the Bay Area testing it on
hundreds of kids and it worked I had
little girls in tutus building belt
drives it was awesome and I I knew I was
on to something
so I had all of these ramshackle
prototypes in my apartment and I've been
working for months like a hermit not
showering and a friend of mine said
Debbie do you want to take this to the
next level do you trust me I said yeah
do you trust me I'm like okay we're not
in a movie what are you talking about he
said you need to apply to this tech
accelerator program it is the most elite
program in Silicon Valley all the top
engineers around the world vie for a
position in this program you need to
apply so I applied and I got into the
big interview day and I walked into a
room of Mark Zuckerberg sitting there on
their computers meanwhile me walking in
the chick with a physical prototype and
I had a napkin over it because obviously
I had to protect my intellectual
property
and so I'm walking in there and gosh do
I not fit in and one of the guys pipes
up and says oh did you bring us cookies
well my confidence was pretty shot and
needless to say I I didn't get into the
accelerator they didn't understand why
on earth I would add a book so they
didn't get it but I didn't give up so I
brought my prototype to the New York Toy
Fair is the International biggest toy
show in the US and I thought okay this
is it I'm gonna go I'm going to show toy
industry batter ends I'm going to talk
to store owners and see what they have
to say about my engineering toy for
girls and I walked in there thinking Toy
Fair is gonna be awesome
there's gonna be all these creative
types mad scientist kids running around
it's gonna be so cool it was a bunch of
old men in suits I don't fit in come on
I got through engineering and now this
so I showed people my prototype and they
all kind of looked at me with pity and
they they whispered me a well-known
industry secret construction toys for
girls don't sell and they took me by the
arm and they showed me what does sell
the pink aisle and they said this is the
way it is and so we've come full circle
and I felt pretty dejected after that
Toy Fair but I wasn't willing to give up
just because this is the way things are
doesn't mean it's what hits how they
have to be and so I took my prototype I
partnered with a factory and I turned it
into a real toy the thing was the
factory minimum order was 5,000 toys and
with all of this rejection I didn't know
if people were going to want it so I put
it up on Kickstarter I had a goal of
raising $150,000 in 30 days to make this
toy a reality I hit go and cross my
fingers and I hit my goal in four days
and our minimum production it didn't end
up being 5000 units it ended up being
over 20,000 I had stores calling from
all over the world saying my customers
are coming in they want goldieblox what
is this goldieblox
I had parents calling in saying yes my
daughter is more than just a princess
I had press writing articles all about
it the world was waiting for this they
wanted this the toy industry had it
wrong yeah sure some girls like
princesses in tiaras and I liked that
stuff too but there's so much more to us
than that there's so much potential and
for me I couldn't be more happy to be
putting my engineering skills into this
product because it leverages not only
the math and science that I worked so
hard to learn but it also leverages my
creativity and engineering is such a
creative thing and I never knew it and
it's so fun for me to get to use my
creative voice and my artistic skills as
a part of engineering and it's so
important that we include that
perspective and the other thing that's
so great about it is engineering is for
people we're designing things for people
so how fun for me to get to spend my
time playing and learning with little
girls and understanding what their needs
are and designing things for them it
couldn't be more rewarding our toys are
now hitting the doorsteps of thousands
of girls around the world I just got an
email from a mom who said we love
playing Goldie Blox my four and a half
year old halfway through the game looked
at me and said mommy am i an engineer
and her mom said yes sweetie you can be
you can be anything for so long for so
many years I felt like I didn't fit in
but now I feel like I belong here
I feel like I belong and our little
girls to do to thank you