"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
This question is asked as early as children have developed the vocabulary to answer it. While on the surface this may seem insignificant or even silly to ask, its importance shouldn't be ignored. When children answer this question, they are expressing their dreams before they can be affected by societal norms and expectations.
A young boy may voice his desire to be a nurse, or a girl may share her aspirations of exploring outer space -- but what happens to these early goals as the years go by? Why do males only represent 10 percent of nurses in the United States, and why are only 17 percent of astrophysicists female?
A 2009 study from psychology research journal, "Sex Roles," found that 31 percent of "girl" toys are primarily focused on appearance, including makeup and dresses, while "boys" toys encourage competition, problem-solving, invention, and exploration -- all skills that are associated with career advancement, success, and leadership. Similarly, traditional "boy" clothes are adorned with trains, dinosaurs, and rocket ships, while "girl" clothes are limited to princesses, Barbie, and kittens. What about the girl who wants to be the astronaut? Where is her rocket ship shirt?
Enter BuddingSTEM, a girls' clothing line that celebrates science, space exploration, dinosaurs, trains, and other things all kids love. BuddingSTEM was built when founders, Mallory Catchpole and Jennifer Muhm, "couldn't find the things their girls loved on girls' clothing." Frustrated with the message that science, technology, engineering, and math were "for boys," they took it upon themselves to build a brand that celebrates the message that girls can do anything.
Few things excite me more than seeing talented women entrepreneurs succeed, so when I heard about Mallory and Jennifer, I wanted nothing more than to learn about their journey to BuddingSTEM.
Great ideas are thought up frequently, but very few people muster up the courage to bring their visions to life. What were the driving forces that pushed you to build Budding Stem?
Like anything that takes courage, it doesn't mean you're not scared -- you just sort of close your eyes and jump in and you do it. Just like when you're learning to swim or you're learning to ski, it doesn't mean you aren't terrified but ideally, once you push through the fear, you can experience the reward and excitement.
From the beginning, we've been defining what a "win" looks like. It may be an enormous success, where Budding Stem evolves into a profitable brand, or it may be that we put something out that brings peoples' attention to a problem in the market. It's really comforting to know that even if this venture doesn't "succeed," as long as we push the market to broaden the options for young girls, it will still be an enormous "win" in our eyes.
However, the number one motivation that really pushed us "over the edge," so to speak, is our daughters. They have had these unfortunate experiences in clothing stores where the options for what they want aren't readily available -- and while we could simply say, "It's not how this should be, but those kinds of clothes aren't made for girls," that's not the example we want to set for our daughters. We want to demonstrate that if they see something in their life that truly is not fair or really needs to change, they can drive that change. Sending that message to our daughters is a success in its own right and definitely a motivating factor in taking this risk.
Outside of Budding Stem, you hold full-time jobs, are moms to adorable little girls, and you still seem extremely calm, collected, and sane. How do you manage your time between all of your commitments?
As far as managing our time, our kids are always our first priority. With that being said, after our kids go to bed, Budding Stem is what we do and it's how we've been spending a lot of weekends and very early mornings. We do a lot of 4 AM to 7 AM work hours before our daughters wake up and we have to get ready for work. We really believe in what we are creating and who we are creating this for, which really motivates us to find the time, even when things get a little bit crazy.
There are still messages being sent to young girls that suggest certain career goals are "for boys" and some are better suited "for girls." What advice can you give to other moms who have daughters that express interests in becoming an astronaut, an engineer, or a web developer, for example?
As early as the age of two, I (Jennifer) began explaining the concept of marketing to my daughter. When we would be grocery shopping and I'd come across a can of soup with a princess on it, I'd explain that the princess was on the can so that little girls would want their mommies to buy the soup. I, of course, did this in a way that made sense to a toddler, but I think it's important to bring a child's attention to gender marketing, so they understand that it is simply a marketing concept and not a requirement when making decisions.
I think the most important thing parents can do is encourage their children to challenge gender marketing. We see this more and more in today's younger generations. For example, eight-year-old Sophie Trow was responsible for starting a social media movement, #InMyShoes, when the dinosaur shoes she wanted weren't available to girls. As parents, we should encourage our girls to take a stand and make a change. We need to work towards taking gender out of the equation. Toys are toys and jobs are jobs.
BuddingSTEM is just one of the many great companies pushing the archaic gender boundaries that sadly still plague society. Companies like Goldie Blox and Roominate are manufacturing toys that encourage girls to build and create, and organizations such as FearlesslyGirl and Girls For A Change are empowering girls to be bold, be strong, and go after their dreams.
Unfortunately, BuddingSTEM does not make their apatosaurus leggings in grown-up sizes, but you can always live vicariously through your daughters!