It’s a sad and universal truth that society takes male creatives more seriously than females.

Girls as young as five are having their creative confidence stifled by the pressure of perfection and limiting language. This implicit bias continues into adulthood and restricts their opportunities in male-dominated creative industries.

The LEGO Group’s ‘More Than Perfect’ initiative tackles this deep-rooted universal truth holding girls back the world over. A truly earned-first campaign that achieved widespread media conversation globally and cemented the LEGO Group’s reputation as a thought leader.

For over 90 years, LEGO play has been the ultimate creative medium for children; transcending borders, cultures and languages. LEGO bricks provide endless opportunities for creative, imaginative play - there is no right or wrong.

However, while the skills developed through the iterative process of building, unbuilding and rebuilding are equally important for all children, the LEGO Group’s own research revealed that play is still considered more relevant to boys than girls, according to 61 percent of parents.

In 2021, the LEGO Group pledged to remove unintentional gender stereotypes and harmful bias from its toys and experiences, but there is still work to do to shift perceptions around LEGO play being a truly gender inclusive toy.

Girls as young as five are having their creativity hampered by the pressure of perfection - limiting their willingness to experiment, take risks and even explore creative careers.

With over three quarters of girls aspiring to work in male-dominated creative industries according to the LEGO Group’s own research, the ever-growing ‘Creativity Gap’ underscores the urgent need for change.

We set out to shift parental behaviour and cultural perceptions born out of deeply entrenched gender stereotypes. Our objective was not only to raise awareness of this bias, but also to inspire and equip parents and teachers with the tools needed to help change girls’ futures.

And with no paid media, we had to find a way to punch above our weight if we were to ignite a widespread media conversation.

Change our words, change girls' world.

The ‘More Than Perfect’ idea puts a spotlight on how our everyday language can hamper girls’ creative confidence. By changing the way we talk to children, we can change their outcomes in life.

The gendered language we use that inadvertently labels her creativity – ‘cute’, ‘pretty’, or ‘perfect’, teaches girls to strive for perfection and play it safe. Whilst the ‘brave’, ‘cool’, ‘genius’ boys are encouraged to experiment and take creative risks.

This is a problem. For girls and for society. Not only are these stereotypes old fashioned and outdated - they limit girls' creative confidence and perpetuate systemic inequalities. It can create a fear of failure and confine them to narrow categories, such as valuing aesthetics over innovation.

The good news: even small changes to our language can make a big difference and help remove the pressure for perfection.

The campaign built upon a deep body of research; the LEGO Group’s largest ever global study surveying over 61,500 parents and children aged 5-12 years old across 36 countries. It revealed that gender language biases apply the world over.

The findings were enlightening: more than 3 in 5 girls report feeling pressure from society's messages of perfection; and 71% of girls say our everyday language makes them worry about making mistakes.

Specifically, society is 7x more likely to attribute terms like “sweet”, “pretty”, “cute” and “beautiful” exclusively to females. While terms such as “brave”, “cool”, “genius” and “innovative” are twice as likely to be attributed to males. The study also found that over half of the children believe adults listen more to boys' creative ideas than girls.

The data fuelled our campaign narrative and ongoing commitment to change girls’ futures, one word at a time.

We released our research findings in an earned media blitz on 5th March 2024, accompanied by an earned-first film ‘More Than Perfect’ - exploring the effect that language can have on girls' creative confidence.

Developed in partnership with Dr Anika Petrella, Researcher and Psychotherapist, and Jennifer Wallace, Harvard-trained parenting researcher and bestselling author, the film calls on parents of girls and society at large to stand up for girls’ creativity.

Not content with just raising awareness of the problem, we provided free creativity workshops in LEGO stores and on LEGO.com for young creators and developed a 10 Steps to Fostering Creative Confidence guide to equip parents and teachers with fun tips to support creative development.

To work towards systemic change, the LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation partnered with Save the Children to directly support girls by setting up clubs and workshops.

With no paid media, the campaign achieved widespread media conversation and debate – sparking a global conversation about language bias.

Tens of thousands of girls (and counting) gained new creative confidence, thousands of families signed up to the free creative workshops and multiple teachers requested use of the ‘LEGO Creative Confidence Guide’.

Building on its ongoing work to remove harmful gender bias from LEGO products and communications, the LEGO Group continues to roll out internal language training and to evaluate its own use of gendered language in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

● 2.2B Total Potential Reach

● 56M Potential Broadcast Reach; including a 4+ minute BBC interview with Susie Dent

● 1,035 Pieces of Coverage; with lead articles in The Times, Forbes, BBC News, Sky News, La Repubblica, Metro, Parents and AdWeek

● 99% positive / neutral sentiment across 60 countries (61% positive)

● +21pp positive sentiment vs. LEGO DEI campaign average

● 159K social engagements

● 10K+ girls directly supported via Save the Children partnership

● 4.5K bookings for the LEGO Retail workshops

Many successful campaigns have empowered girls to feel confident in their bodies, but very few have empowered girls to feel confident in their creativity - a top-ranked skill for future workplaces according to the World Economic Forum.