Should Girls Have “Girl Legos”?

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I am torn. I just purchased a “Lego Friends – Adventure Camper” which is basically the girl version of a camping Lego set. At the time I thought it was the perfect gift for a girl – that for once there was a Lego for a girl who did not always have to do with helicopters, action heroes, and cars. Softer colors, yet could also be used by a boy. It felt like something I would have wanted as a young girl.

Then I saw this petition on Change.org. It is a petition against Lego to “stop selling out girls.” The SPARK Movement and Powered By Girl are behind the petition that debunks the idea that: “girls want pink, already-assembled toys that don’t do anything.” I love this quote from the petition:

“I can speak from personal experience and assure you, LEGO, that girls do like minifigs. They also like Star Wars and Harry Potter, and they like being creative and making up stories that involve adventures and good and evil and things blowing up. But if you keep on excluding them from your marketing vision, soon they will start to believe that they would rather have hot tubs and little plastic boobs.”

So I am torn with my purchase. I think all kids like playing with Legos. Do girls notice the difference? Do they know that Legos have always been designed for boys? Do they care? Do they like having the people who go along with the Legos be girls rather than usually only boys?

I would love to hear what you think. I am trying to decide if I should unwrap and return my gift.

9 thoughts on “Should Girls Have “Girl Legos”?”

  1. Yes, I would have preferred the girl version as a child….I gave this as a gift to a little girl and she LOVED it – went right to putting it together and wanted more.

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  2. I think Lego have it about right. The Lego friends stuff is more preassembled but there is still some building to do. It is definitely aimed at girls. Then there are the monster trucks that are designed to bash into each other catapulting the little man out. These are aimed at boys. And then there is a whole heap of stuff in the middle, houses, lighthouse, packs of general bricks, film tie-ins. This lot is for everyone, the boxes aren’t gender specific and Lego packaging doesn’t show children. Girls and boys do play differently, whether this is inbuilt or comes from society I don’t know. My daughter makes models and then plays with them, my son makes the model, plays a bit, then takes in apart and builds something else.

    I do object to the colours slightly, not everything has to be pink or purple. Not just in Lego, I saw a bouncing zebra baby toy the other day in normal zebra colours and a pink version!

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  3. My three year old Noni can not get enough of the Lego’s that I bought her recently. It is an unfortunate turn of events that everyone has to get into a debate about everything, as if they speak for the entire female generation. Lego’s are a fun cognitive tool for children and adventurous adults. Please keep your gift, I assure you, it will go over so well with the little girls imagination.

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  4. I loved my legos – and never once thought they were boy or girl specific. My brother and I both got legos growing up and would make fantastic designs with them. I might have built a stable (or two) for my pretty ponies but Drew was just as likely to help with the stable. Who cares if they are pastel instead of primary colors – as long as they are legos they are cool.

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