UltraViolet's Holiday Gift Guide: A Non-sexist Guide to 21st Century Holiday Shopping
The UltraViolet Holiday Gift Guide is here! Take a look at these awesome gifts, and share this guide with your friends--every mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and grandparent out there needs to see this as they do their holiday shopping.
Click here to download a printable (PDF) version of this guide.
Links to online retailers are included below, but we encourage you look for these gifts at your local bookstore or toy store. When possible, we've provided links to help you find those retailers. (Disclosure: A portion of sales from this guide on Amazon.com will benefit UltraViolet.)
Looking for more gift ideas to empower the girls in your life? Try out A Mighty Girl, an even bigger gift guide, and the American Association of University Women gift guide, which helps all kids defy gender stereotypes.
Gifts for Ages 4 and Under
Kapla blocks
Toy | Ages 3+
These are beautifully made, colorful, small wooden construction blocks. They provoke imagination, require dexterity and planning and perseverance, and feel wonderful.
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Stacking Train
Toy | Ages 2+
This brightly colored wooden train consists of several large, chunky pieces that are different sizes and shapes. It's really a three-dimensional puzzle. The colors are neutral, primary colors. And it encourages spatial and critical thinking.
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Girls Are Not Chicks Coloring Book
Book | Ages 4+
By Jacinta Bunnell. Coloring books that feature girls riding tractors, boys asking for dolls, with captions like “Sometimes the princess is saved by the girl next door.” They empower girls (and boys) to be themselves, and remind us that gender is a complicated thing.
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Fisher Price Doctor Kit
Toy | Ages 3+
This simple doctor's kit is unisex--for a girl or a boy. It is a great gift to give a little girl to convey women are doctors too.
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All the World
Book | Ages 3+
By Liz Garton Scanlon. A gentle, clever book with soft, beautiful illustrations and simple rhymes. And its message is one of peace and love. It shows the universal humanity of a diverse group of men, women, girls, and boys.
Buy this gift on Amazon.com Find a local book storeGifts for Ages 5-8
Magna-Tiles
Toy | Ages 3+
Colorful, magnetic building tiles allow for open-ended play. No "gendered" sets--all children play with all colors of tiles.
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The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women
Book | Ages 5+
By Katrin Tchana. This anthology of 18 stories about heroines with as much courage, wit and intelligence as their more familiar male counterparts. Engaging, strong heroines taking charge and solving problems, with beautiful illustrations.
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The Daring Book for Girls
Book | Ages 7-14
By Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. This is a super book for future powerful women! It treats and presents girls as the daring, adventurous, curious, inquisitive, athletic, artistic, intellectual, knowledge seeking beings that they are.
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Maria the Scientist Paper Doll
Toy | Ages 4+
By Anna Pomaska. Paper doll (girl) with outfits to become a chemist, biologist, paleontologist or naturalist. She's a scientist!
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My First Dinosaur Science Kit
Toy | Ages 4+
Dinosaur kit includes real excavation tools, a dinosaur skeleton, a build-your-own glow in the dark dinosaur, learning tools and books. It's appeals to different types of kids--whether they prefer active, outdoor play or puzzles and books.
Buy this gift on Amazon.comGifts for Ages 9-12
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Book | Ages 9+
By Jacqueline Kelly. Recent novel about a girl in late 19th century Texas who helps her grandfather carry out scientific research, flouting some gender conventions while doing so. Strong female character. My daughter and her friends loved it.
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Nancy Drew Computer Games
Game | Ages 10+
A variety of games from Her Interactive featuring Nancy Drew, detective, solving mysteries. My girls love love these games. It's computer time but it's also working at skills. Being the lead detective is empowering.
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Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World
Book | Ages 9+
By Kathleen Ragan. A definitive sourcebook of folktales and fairytales, and the first of its kind to feature a variety of multicultural heroines. This book provides alternative folk tales about female empowerment.
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The Golden Compass
Book | Ages 10+
By Philip Pullman. A beautifully written young adult story of adventure, sadness, and wonder. Highly enjoyable for adults as well! The heroine is a young girl of about 10-12, who is smart, resourceful, brave, and non-stereotypical.
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Roominate
Toy | Ages 6-10
A kit of building pieces and circuit components that a child can use to design, build, wire, and decorate her own unique interactive room. Develops young girls' confidence and enthusiasm for math, science, and learning through fun hands-on play.
Buy this gift from Roominate
Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls by Jane Yolen
Book | Ages 8+
By Jane Yolen. This collection of thirteen retold folk tales about strong young women come from every corner of the globe, from a fierce medieval knight to a Chinese girl who slays a dreaded serpent.
Buy this gift from Amazon.com Find a local book storeGifts for Ages 13 and Up
Bend it Like Beckham
Movie | Rated PG-13
This is a girl buddies film, a rare enough genre, set in Great Britain. The main characters are strong, smart, funny girls who dream of being professional soccer athletes. It also deals with issues of race and touches on the subject of lesbian stereotypes.
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Whale Rider
Movie | Rated PG-13
Whale Rider Movie | Rated PG-13 One of the most charming and critically acclaimed films of 2003. A strong girl challenges the gender limitations of her traditional Maori culture, yet is strongly embedded in that culture, which is portrayed as surviving yet evolving in the modern world.
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Persepolis
Book | Ages 12+
By Marjane Satrapi. This graphic novel chronicles Satrapi's life growing up in war-torn Iran. It presents strong female characters and encourages women to engage in political activism and social reform.
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Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Book | For teens and adults
By Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This moving book tells the true story of injustices women suffer worldwide, the changes that happen in their lives when we offer a little help, and the transformation that can happen in the world when their lives change.
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Iron Jawed Angels
Movie | For teens and adults
Oscar-winner Hilary Swank stars in this true story about a pair of defiant and brilliant young activists who took the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote. This HBO movie is not rated.
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