October 2014

VARIABLES
Miss Possible Brings Female Role Models to the Playroom

ENTREPRENEURS SUPRIYA HOBBS, LEFT, A UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING ALUMNUS, AND JANNA EAVES, A UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING STUDENT, FOUNDED MISS POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE GIRLS WITH POSITIVE ROLE MODELS EARLY IN THEIR LIVES.

With newly developed toys like GoldieBlox and Roominate winning awards and earning spots on retail shelves, inspiring future generations of women through play has become a popular approach for increasing the number of women in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. But the newest toy being developed to accomplish this will go beyond using play to expose girls to STEM projects and skills—ensuring they also grow up with strong role models.

Miss Possible, the invention of University of Illinois chemical engineering alumnus Supriya Hobbs and materials science and engineering senior Janna Eaves, is a series of dolls inspired by real women and accompanied by an app that includes the story of the woman and hands-on activities as well as on-screen games designed to bring the woman’s story and work to life.

“Research indicates that early exposure to these fields and role models in these fields are really important to girls’ career choices, so we’re taking both of those and putting them in toy form essentially,” Hobbs says. “We have a doll that represents a real woman who did something cool for the world, and we’re starting in the STEM fields.”

The first of these dolls will be based on Marie Curie and, through the app, Marie will guide children in hands-on chemistry and physics activities they can do with everyday things around their house. These activities are designed to feel like play, but girls using the app will also learn real lessons about Curie’s work and skills used in STEM fields.

Manufacturing has yet to begin, but preorders for Miss Possible are currently being taken at www.bemisspossible.com.