This is a First Look: It's the first time any news outlet or blog has covered this startup. You can read more First Looks here. (We do this a lot.)
In the past couple of decades, there’s been more and more chatter surrounding how we as a society can encourage girls to go into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - better known as STEM. It seems like everyone - not just schools - are taking an interest in closing the gender gap in these fields. And startups are becoming pretty creative when it comes to making STEM better appeal to young girls.
Take, for instance, Savvy Society. This venture makes engineering fun and approachable for girls, teaching them to use CAD as they design their own 3D-printed shoes. Alexa Fleischman and Lauren Wallace, who graduated from Boston College and Babson respectively and who now live in San Francisco, launched the startup last fall, and they maintain it will give girls a leg up in certain areas of STEM further down the road.
What does it do?
Savvy Society has partnered with Autodesk, granting young girls access to Tinkercad for free. With the help of CAD tutorials on Savvy Society’s Youtube channel, girls are able to learn how to design their own accessories to be 3D printed and attached to the startup’s shoes.
At the moment, girls are able to submit their designs to the venture, and each month, the company chooses three designs that will be put into production and sold. And in the future, once a more efficient child safety testing process is worked out, Savvy Society intends to let all girls buy whatever they design directly - without having to go through a selection process.
So women purposefully choose STEM
These two Savvy Society Co-Founders accidentally stumbled into STEM-heavy careers. (Fleischman ended up working in Product at EMC, while Wallace found herself doing Finance at JPMorgan). Neither of them had the academic experience to prepare them for these positions, but once they got the hang of their tech- and math-intensive roles, they loved what they were doing.
“I encountered a steep learning curve, and once I got past it, I saw how creative these types of careers can be, even though they aren’t portrayed to be that way,” Wallace explained.
In addition to being pleasantly surprised that their STEM jobs were enjoyable, Wallace and Fleischman began noticing there weren’t many other women in their fields. That observation served as inspiration for Savvy Society.
“When I look back, I never saw myself with a career in tech, product and definitely not engineering,” said Fleischman. “I ended up there by luck. And now, I want to make sure it isn’t luck for the next generation of women. Technology and engineering is something they should want to do.”
“If girls have exposure early on to see the creativity there can be in math or engineering, if they see how they need to know how to problem-solve in these areas, it could be a more interesting take on STEM, from a girl’s perspective,” Wallace told me.
Impressions of STEM subjects when girls are young can significantly impact their career choices when they’re grown. By enabling girls to build engineering skills through this creative and fun manner, Savvy Society is hoping to alter how they view STEM.
“With this problem, yes, a small element is a lack of exposure to STEM, but primarily, it’s perception,” Fleischman shared. “Girls believe that STEM isn’t something you do for fun: You have to do it in the classroom; it’s for boys; you’re not good at it. There’s a huge lack of confidence among girls.”
“Our number one priority has been creating a consumer experience that they would engaging and, dare I say, fun,” she continued. “Then, we wove in elements of STEM so there would be an underlying value in it.”
3D printing could get women ahead of the curve
Although Savvy Society could have concentrated on getting girls excited about any number of areas in STEM, the founding team consciously chose CAD and its use in 3D printing, in particular. Essentially, they still see this developing technology as fair game for both genders.
“We chose to focus on 3D printing because it will be the most disruptive technology in the next decade,” Fleischman stated. “Encouraging girls to learn coding is such a focus, but 3D printing is the Wild, Wild West. It’s new for everyone. So we can make sure girls are at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology.”
In the past couple of years, different sectors have found new applications for 3D printing - 3D-printed organs and cars, for example. As time goes by, Savvy Society expects there to be even more uses for this technology, and teaching girls the basics will set them up for greater job success.
“There will be more of a push to create jobs related to 3D printing, and girls can have confidence to look back and say, ‘I’ve been using CAD to design my own shoes since I was 6. I can do this,’” said Wallace, adding, “Everyone is starting from a level playing field with 3D printing."
“Hopefully, girls will have an advantage now,” Fleischman laughed.
Images via Savvy Society.
