Connecting Genders with a Simple Design

By Tony Kim

Toy stores for the past decade have divided toys into two aisle: one for female and one for males. The segregation of toys have not made it only difficult for parents, but also, installed the idea of gender segregation early on within children’s lives. As girls all have their personal barbie dolls and males have their hotwheel cars, even without the children knowing, they are being separated, expected to have different roles, characteristics, and preferences.

One entrepreneur and project designer named Dan Nguyen wanted to fix all this. He wanted to build a toy with a simple and elegant design that would reach both genders and limitless age. Using the concept of the most popular toy in the world, lego, Dan created Animal Stackers. Animal Stackers are colorfully painted to represent a multitude of different animals such as a giraffe, zebra, elephant and more in an animated fashion. They are also in block form meaning, children can stack them and play with them in a similar way to legos.

What I really appreciate about the toy is its simplicity and design. In my opinion, the reason why hardware startups have such a difficult time is due to the fact their products must not only be functionally perfect, but fashionably marketable. It adorable design truly surpasses any gender boundaries and attracts the eyes of any young customer.