In the company of many girl-skewing engineering toys like Roominate and GoldieBlox, construction toyco K’Nex is delving deeper into the STEM toy space with its new line of Mighty Makers.
Launched last month, the Mighty Makers line is designed to empower girls seven and up through creative, story-based building sets. Created by an all-female marketing and design team, each STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) set features colorful rods and connectors and follows the life and career of the included figure – whose job may vary from marine biologist to mechanical engineer.
Now, the Pennsylvania-based company is taking things a step further with a video marketing campaign, dubbed Brave & Beautiful. The video, available on YouTube, features both original music and interviews with young girls, who answer the age-old question of what they’d like to be when they grow up. The video centers around the tagline #IAmAMightyMaker!
The toy line and its corresponding campaign are responses to the fact that less than 15% of women in post-secondary education are majoring in STEM-related subjects. Recent research coming out of Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Thinking Media has found that 90% of girls make their career decisions in seventh or eighth grade, and the leading reason why so many shy away from STEM careers is due to a lack of exposure.