Adam Stanaland

And we think this is because past research shows that young girls around three to four are really into femininity.

They get lots of messages about wearing pink frilly dresses, and it's actually called the pink frilly dress effect.

And then as girls age, they kind of realize boys have it good, right?

I want to be more like a boy.

And they start getting encouraged to move into these traditionally historically male spaces, sports, leadership, science, et cetera.

As boys get older, they get the message that you must be like a boy to prove your masculinity.

And there's no other way to do that.

And you have to avoid being girly to do that.

And so it's kind of both things.

right so i think i think what you presented there is a great example of boys and girls just need a diversity of role models we describe kids as like little researchers or little experimenters that are as they're going to the world they're collecting a bunch of data in their heads of like okay i'm a boy what does a typical man or boy look like and that's how i want to act i see other people doing that they're fitting in they're not fitting in and so

If we want to kind of level the playing field in terms of what they see and the statistics that they're doing in their head, we need to present them with a more diverse variety of role models.

Right.

And we think that's one of the big issues, right?

So with the feminist movement, we saw women moving into men's spaces, which was great.

And we see a lot of pushes now for things like girls in STEM.

We don't see as much

pushing for boys to take up what are called heed careers.

And I forget what heed stands for.

It's like healthcare, education, something, ED.

But yeah, there's not that kind of equivalent pushing in both directions.