LEGO’s new Women of NASA collection is a fun step forward for all girls

Remember when LEGO for girls meant pastel bricks? I built worlds out of pink and mint green blocks—but the girls of today can build worlds that expand into the solar system, thanks to LEGO’s new Women of NASA collection. LEGO announced today the new collection is launching (no pun intended) on November 1. ?

The set features four female STEM pioneers:

Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space when she blasted off in 1983.

Mae Jemison, the first black woman to fly in space in 1992. (The same year I got those pink Legos.)

Nancy Grace Roman, the “Mother of Hubble,” who made a huge contribution to our knowledge of space in her role as NASA’s first chief of astronomy and a key player in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Margaret Hamilton, an important figure in the history of computer technology, who led the team that developed the software for Apollo.

The idea for this amazing set came from science writer Maia Weinstock, the deputy editor of MIT News, back in July 2016.

“I wanted to spotlight a fantastic group of women who have made seminal contributions to NASA history,” she said in a press release for LEGO. “My dream would be to know that the first human on Mars—or an engineer or computer scientist who helped her get there—played with the LEGO Women of NASA as a child and was inspired to pursue a STEM career as a result.”

The 231-piece set will ring in at $24.99. Today, that will help girls and boys build little Hubble Space Telescopes, space shuttles and launch pads of their own. Tomorrow, the opportunities are as infinite as the universe. ?