10 Classic Toys that were Invented By Women – Part 2

To continue Women’s History Month, here is the second part of our list of 10 iconic toys and games that were designed by women. (You can read the first part here!)

This list represents a diverse collection of women who came from all different backgrounds, educations, and interests. What they all have in common is that each demonstrated innovation and persistence to make her imagination become reality. We hope you enjoy reading their stories as much as we enjoyed writing them!

6. Betty Morris and Kathryn Bloomberg, inventors of Shrinky Dinks

Morris and Bloomberg, two Wisconsin mothers and homemakers, were long time best friends. Each had a son in the Cub Scouts. So, the two ladies often worked together to organize fun projects for their sons to complete.

One such project was found in the pages of a women’s digest magazine. Morris read about a craft where one could draw on the plastic lids that came with deli containers and then bake the lids in the oven. The baking process shrunk and hardened the images into tiny plastic holiday ornaments. Originally Morris and Bloomberg were going to order a sample of sheets from a plastic supplier just enough for the Cub troop to participate in the craft. But, the two mothers were astounded by how excited the craft made the boys. They realized there was a market for this kind of hands-on craft kit.

Morris and Bloomberg began demonstrating the craft at a local mall. They called their kits Shrinky Dinks. In the first ten days they sold 3,000 kits. Within five months, they had been purchased by a national toy chain.

7. Bonnie Zacherle, designer of My Little Pony

Bonnie D. Zacherle was a Massachusetts-based greeting card illustrator. She completed some freelance assignments for Hasbro Toy Company in the mid-70s. Hasbro then offered her a full time position coming up with ideas for children’s toys. Zacherle remembered wanting a horse when she was little girl, and channeled that memory into her proposition.

She pitched the idea for a miniature horse figurine that would have a brushable tail and mane. The toy would let children feel like they were really “caring” for a horse of their own. Zacherle then expanded her vision to include a full line of six characters: different horse models with various “cutie marks” printed on their hindquarters to represent different emotions. In 1981, Hasbro introduced the first incarnation of this line, calling it My Pretty Pony. These first models were hand painted by Zacherle herself!

The success of My Little Pony is a testament to being open to feedback from collaborators. Zacherle’s original idea did not include the pastel colorings that modern My Little Pony characters feature. After her director suggested offering different color choices to a test group, the now familiar fairytale-esque design won out.

The original line ran from 1983 to 1992. My Little Pony has continued to remain popular, with new figurines, TV shows, and movies bringing in more than $650 million a year in sales.

8. Dona Bailey, creator of Centipede and first woman to design an arcade video game

In 1980, video games were a man’s world. In fact, of Atari’s 6,000 employees, only one woman worked in their coin-operated arcade game department. Nonetheless, Dona Bailey made her mark on the video game world by co-programming what would become Atari’s second-best-selling coin-op game after Pac-Man.

Bailey started as a programmer for General Motors, working on the cruise control system and visual display in GM automobiles. Out with a friend at a bar one evening, Bailey noticed that the screen of a nearby arcade game was similar to the display of the GM Cadillac. She learned that Atari used the same microprocessor in their games as GM did — a microprocessor that she was already familiar with. Thinking that video games had to be more fun, Bailey moved to California to join the Atari team.

Bailey was assigned to program a new game, Centipede, with supervisor Ed Logg. In the game, players shoot through a field of mushrooms at a centipede that is descending down the screen. The player has to demolish the centipede and other insect threats before the mushrooms clutter up their screen.

One of the few early arcade games not designed around fighting, Centipede grew a strong female player base. It was also one of the first games to use a pastel color palette instead of the primary colors typical of the time.

Bailey has acknowledged the discomfort of working in such a male-dominated industry. Many men that she worked with didn’t think women needed to included in the world of video games. But, she was so excited with the work that she got to do that she persisted through the subtle sexisms.

9. Leslie Scott, inventor of Jenga

Leslie Scott was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the largest city in East Africa. Her family, British expatriates, would play a simple game with her younger brother’s toy blocks. Their game required participants to stack blocks upon each other while removing others from further down the stack. (Sound familiar?) When Scott moved to the United Kingdom to attend Oxford University, she introduced the game to other students.

Scott said that it didn’t occur to her at first that her family’s simple game was a novelty to the English students. She soon realized she had a product that people were excited to play. The appeal, she thought, came from the game’s simplicity. We live in a world with so many distractions that our excitement hardly ever builds up. But when we’re watching a wooden tower, waiting for it to fall… well, the tension builds in a way most people rarely get to experience anymore. Jenga is easy to learn and doesn’t require special skills to play. It’s an easy crowd pleaser for players of all types!

In 1983, Scott presented her game at the London Toy Fair. She called it “Jenga” based on the Swahili word kujenga, which means “to build.” The game wasn’t as well received as she had hoped it would be. Three years later, however, Scott re-shared Jenga at the Toronto Toy Fair. There, she found a buyer in Hasbro. The game became a towering success.

Jenga’s success enabled Scott to continue with her career as a game designer, and she went on to create and publish other family friendly games. But Jenga has remained her crowning achievement. In one interview with her alma mater, Scott let slip a secret that most players don’t realize about the game: “Each one of the 64 blocks in a Jenga is very slightly and randomly different from every other block. This means that no two sets of Jenga are the same.”

10. Janese Swanson, software developer for Broderbund and inventor of the Password Journal

Janese Swanson wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she grew up, but she was certain that she wanted to do a lot! Swanson was born in San Diego in 1958 and raised by a single mother after her father was killed in the Vietnam War. While in high school she began working at Sears, where she was the only female sales associate in the television and sound system department. Her interest in computers, a budding technology at the time, continued during her time as a flight attendant when she taught fellow stewardesses how to use laptops in their spare time.

Swanson was also passionate about gender equality. She studied several fields at university, ultimately completing six academic degrees including a PhD in organization and leadership, and wrote her thesis on gender issues in product design.

Eventually Swanson landed a job with Broderbund, an educational software and video game company. There she helped developed computer games like Where in The World Is Carmen Sandiego? The now iconic franchise was inspired by Swanson’s time with the airline. While working at Broderbund, Swanson also toyed around with creating fun, quirky gadgets for her daughter to play with. She ultimately left Broaderbund to found her own company, Girl Tech, where she could focus on creating girl-centric gizmos and toys.

Girl Tech’s product line included surprisingly high-tech gadgets like a talking picture frame called the “Friend Frame”, a box with a remote-controlled lock called the “Keepsake Box”, a remote listening device called “Bug ‘Em”, and a journal with a voice-activated locking mechanism: the Password Journal. These products related to the specific interests and concerns of young girls, such as privacy and friendship. Most importantly, Swanson showed young girls that they had a place in the world of technology and design.