Debbie Sterling
GoldieBlox
San Francisco, CA USA
"I was laughed at by the toy industry, and yet, I stuck with my intuition and it became wildly successful."
Career Roadmap
Debbie's work combines: Design, Engineering, and Upholding a Cause and Belief
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Hearing this made me feel like everyone thought I wasn't smart enough to do engineering. I started to realize that because I had never been exposed to it as a kid, learning it as an adult was much harder. The males in my classes all seemed to have an edge over me. Even though it was hard, I stuck with it because I loved it and knew that degree would allow me to make my dreams a reality.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Engineering, General
Stanford University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
She studied mechanical engineering and product design at Stanford University.
2.
One day, she and a friend were having a conversation about how few women they had in their engineering classes.
3.
Her friend had become interested in engineering because she’d played with her brothers’ building blocks and toys when she was a kid.
4.
Debbie realized that she’d never seen any sort of toy like that being marketed to, or designed for young girls.
5.
When she started shopping around the idea of building block toys for women, many people in the toy industry told her that there was a reason that boys played with blocks and girls didn’t.
6.
She spent years researching childhood development to find out if this was true, and learned it was actually a myth, and that young girls are just as primed to become engineers as boys are.
7.
She knew she’d found her calling, and developed GoldieBlox, a children’s toy and media company that inspires girls to get interested in engineering and technology.
8.
Says that when you’re creating something you believe in, you’re going to face rejection—just like she did when she first approached the toy industry—but you can’t let the “no’s” stop you.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Family:
Why would you want to do engineering? That doesn't sound fun at all, you should do something easier.
How I responded:
Hearing this made me feel like everyone thought I wasn't smart enough to do engineering. I started to realize that because I had never been exposed to it as a kid, learning it as an adult was much harder. The males in my classes all seemed to have an edge over me. Even though it was hard, I stuck with it because I loved it and knew that degree would allow me to make my dreams a reality.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I was always bothered by how I was one of a few women in my engineering programs in school and I realized this was a larger cultural issue, which is what led me to create GoldieBlox.
I had to be ok with the fact that this was something hard for me to learn and it doesn't come as easily to me as other things and that that's okay. It's embarrassing, but there's no shame in it.