Dear Lego,

I saw this article.  Being a person of female gender who is going into a technological field, I thought my opinions and reminiscences might be helpful.

I should begin by saying that I was neither a girly girl nor a tomboy.  Usually, I was somewhere in between, an average Jane Doe.  I loved Treasure Island, Shirley Temple, and Ben-Hur.  I played with Barbie dolls and Sweet Streets and remote-control cars and, yes, Legos.

They were old-school Legos.  Mostly squares and rectangles in red, blue, yellow, and green.  A couple of pieces had eyes on them, and there was one piece that looked like a face (of sorts). We kept them in a plastic box that made a horrible noise when you had to clean it all up.  I guess they'd be considered semi-vintage now.

We didn't have Star Wars, Pirates, or beauty shop Legos.  And that was the trick, you see.  By reducing the options to square and rectangles of the most basic colors of the rainbow, our Lego collection broadened my creative abilities.  Instead of being distracted by Lego figurines, I was able to focus entirely on the design and building aspects.  Nobody told me it was boring or out-of-date. 

I am of the strongest opinion that "trying to get more girls to get into sciences and technological pursuits" can't be accomplished by sugarcoating science and technology.  Girls who are remotely interested in those topics should have no problem playing with normal Legos, even if they also like playing with dolls as I did.  The challenge and applicability of Legos are found within its simplicity.

And, if we must make a Lego set, let it be something as cool as the Pirate tall ship.  I would have loved making something like that.