Inspiring the next generation of female engineers | Debbie Sterling | TEDxPSU

Close your eyes and picture and engineer. You probably weren't envisioning Debbie Sterling. Debbie Sterling is an engineer and founder of GoldieBlox, a toy company out to inspire the next generation of female engineers. She has made it her mission in life to tackle the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math.

GoldieBlox is a book series+construction set that engages kids to build through the story of Goldie, the girl inventor who solves problems by building simple machines. Debbie writes and illustrates Goldie's stories, taking inspiration from her grandmother, one of the first female cartoonists and creator of ""Mr. Magoo."" Her company, launched in 2012, raised over $285,000 in 30 days through Kickstarter, and has been featured in numerous publications such as The Atlantic and Forbes.

Prior to founding GoldieBlox, Debbie served as the Marketing Director of Lori Bonn, a national jewelry company. For the past 7 years, she has also served as a brand strategy consultant for a wide variety of organizations including Microsoft, T-Mobile, Organic Valley and the New York Knicks.

Debbie's inspiration to create a mission-driven company came in 2008, when she spent 6 months volunteering at a grassroots nonprofit in rural India. She created a viral fundraising campaign called ""I Want a Goat,"" raising over $30,000 for economic and educational development in the region. This experience helped pave the way to finding her true passion: inspiring the next generation of female engineers.

Debbie completed her degree in engineering at Stanford (Product Design, '05) and currently lives with her husband in San Francisco.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[witchplease]

My grandma was in the military. My aunt is a doctor. My mom is a University professor. My older sister is an architect. I want to be a video game developer. I'm so proud to be in a family of intellectual and accomplished black women.

[stephaniesmith]

This woman is a genius. What a great speech, every girl who wants to go into a STEM subject should watch this.

[Sara_suu]

I saw this video 4 years ago. And now Its my last year of civil engineering. Thank you

[nabila]

"Engineering is for people"


I remember my intern days, the head of the department would always say "even your grandma is an engineer. She solves everything in her daily chores by her own. She uses logic. And that's engineering. Be like her. Dont just study books and pass the exams"


And that quote impacts me right til this day :D

[spoiledandspilled]

This is seriously AH.... MAZING. I am studying petroleum engineering. I am in my First year and guys in my department really treat us 2 girls like dirt... literal dirt!
But i will never give up I KNOW I WILL BECOME A PETROLEUM ENGINEER. Please pray for me 😇

[bilguunj]

When my mom suggested to me to become a civil engineer I pictured myself this strong smart woman in suits designing beautiful constructions visiting the site and giving instructions to the workers. It sounded pretty amazing as a girl who will be doing such things. And right now I'm on the path to become an engineer but sometimes I really do feel lonely and discouraged though. These kind of talks really inspire and sharpen me a lot! Thank you so much. And what you are doing right now is so great Debbie!

[SMckenzie]

This made me cry so much... I'm a Jamaican, female, Chemical Engineering student, struggling hard to find the zeal to continue to pursue this degree. I am the only one in my entire family that has pursued an Engineering degree and that fact alongside being a female and being Caribbean has made me feel lonely for soooo long. I feel like I don't fit in, and I probably never will. On top of that, I've failed 5 key modules and as such I have to spend an extra year? Can I catch up? Will I ever be good enough? Will I be hired in Jamaica much less anywhere else? Do I have something to contribute to the world?What am I doing and why am I here? I have sooo many dreams and concepts and ideas but with all that is and has been I just feel completely worthless, useless and unnecessary as an Engineer. I started out wanting to make a difference in Jamaica, now all I want to do is pass my last 3 courses and run as far away from Engineering as possible... I am genuinely heart-broken at the thought of it all and I was so close to giving up. But thank you... Thank you much Debbie, for this presentation and for pushing through till it happened. And thank you for sharing this journey and experience with the wider world... I needed to hear this; I really needed to see this and I will no longer negate myself or compare myself to the male engineers... I will work harder and I will pursue my business ideas and I will try and I will not give up... I will honestly admit I am still terrified... but thank you sooo much for hope. God bless you Love!

[LeeCarlson]

I saw this video, and went out and ordered Goldieblox for my daughter, who has been using modelling clay, straws, toothpicks and bottle-caps to build things for the past year. Now she's going to have more toys that she can build with.

[rat_in_a_cowboy_hat]

I'm a teenage girl and I want to become an engineer. Never have I thought "it's boys' thing, I can't do that!".


Edit: not a teenage girl any more and this year I am graduating with a bachelors in electronic engineering :)

[lavendertshuma]

This really inspired me... I am doing my first year in computer systems engineering. Just 4 girls out of 17 boys.. I am never giving up. Its hard but worth it

[Akinomagetro]

As someone who owns an engineering company, I've personally seen and experienced men trying to discourage determined, capable women from entering/staying in the industry. I think, some men base their masculinity by being in this industry and feel insulted that women can work in the same industry.

[michaeljohnson]

I didn't trade in my humanity when I became and engineer, and neither has my daughter. She just finished her senior year at Colorado School of Mines as an EE. I'm a very proud dad, she's still very much a young woman, beautiful, empathetic and smart. She'll make a great employee, business owner, what ever she chooses as well as a great mother and wife (someday but not too soon). I manage engineers these days and personally, I WANT women engineers on my teams. They're motivated, talented and more willing to push through the grunt work to get things done right than egotistical testosterone driven male geeks. Engineering, big time engineering is a team sport and frankly, male engineers don't always play together well but throw a woman or two on the team, and everyone behaves.
You go Debbie - show the world (at least America) that women make great engineers. My daughter will be right behind you.

[rainbowdust]

When she got to the part where she exceeded her goal, I literally cried. This is what our girls need! Thank you!

[sangenrai]

I used to watch this as inspiration before joining engineering and now I'm already an engineer. I listen to her. She is such inspiration.

[selima]

as a female future engineer on the verge of giving up, this is the motivation I've needed for a long time♡

[yumishaniroula]

Here, we are missing tinker bell. She is the coolest fairy that made me collect everything about her in my room. And inspired me build my own tree house, baskets, unicycle and other small crafts. I am 15 years now and am grown up by opening machines and wondering what would make them do their work. I feel blessed after watching this video that my family has been very supportive. Thank you so much

[aarohik]

How many female engineers are here? Hit like if you feel proud!

[clairextreme]

i'm a female computer science engineer and this was the most emotional ted talk i've ever watched! sooo important, this is such a huge issue, thank you for addressing it. really struck a chord with me

[celere]

I've been an engineer since 1980 (mechanical/aeronautical engineering). I have loved every second of it (mostly). I credit my parents, who attended perfectly to my nerd-child self. They never told me it was crazy to want to be an astronaut (I got a GI Joe and Mercury space capsule that year for Christmas), and never told me math and science was just for boys. They got me that first telescope, microscope, chemistry set, stamp collection. We even got lincoln logs! Oh, and I think it helped that I had no brothers.

It really is small things like that, which are really big things, that made me an engineer. My first job was with NASA Langley and my first boss was a woman (an expert in high angle of attack flight stability and control). I had and still have so many female colleagues. I feel very fortunate. I say to "up and coming" engineers work hard, because it is hard, don't listen to the negative voices, prove them wrong and have a great time. Engineering is such a fun and creative path.

[aka-sjql]

Here in the arab world it's very common for a woman to be an engineer.. Literally all of my female cousins have degrees in engineering and I'm going to major engineering soon too