Two young women who studied engineering at the University of Illinois want to inspire girls to become scientists by offering dolls based on real people, like Nobel Prize-winning chemist and physicist Marie Curie.
Janna Eaves and Supriya Hobbs founded the Miss Possible company to offer an alternative to Barbie or American Girl dolls.
In addition to the Madame Curie doll, Miss Possible is also producing aviator Bessie Coleman and computer programmer Ada Lovelace. The dolls also come with an app that lets kids learn more about the person’s biography and field of study.
Hobbs told Here & Now’s Robin Young that she was inspired by the phrase “You can’t be what you can’t see.” And Hobbs says, she wants girls “to see everything.”
The company got started thanks to $85,000 raised on the crowd-funding website Indiegogo. The first dolls come out in January.
Guest
- Supriya Hobbs, CEO and co-founder of Miss Possible. She tweets @SupriyaHobbs.
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