3 Women Toy Inventors to Know for Women’s History Month

As the world shares the important stories of famous women in history this month, we thought we’d share a few that hit a little closer to home – female toy inventors from the Educational Insights family! Read on to learn more about the backgrounds, inspiration, and motivation of three of our favorite female toy creators.

Nancy Balter

As a child, lifelong science lover Nancy Balter dreamt of becoming an astronaut. As an adult, she launched her career in education instead, becoming a science and math teacher via Teach for America and then spending 10+ years teaching middle school and running science, nature, and robotics clubs for kids. In an effort to share her passion for science with students beyond her classroom and engage more kids in STEM learning, Nancy eventually shifted her focus to science toys.

"Creating new items like the Nancy B science toys, Kidnoculars, and even math toys like Fraction Pie Puzzles and Fraction Formula was enormously satisfying as a way to reach an audience beyond my classroom and inspire an interest in STEM."

–  Nancy Balter

Among her most notable science products is Nancy’s namesake line – Nancy B’s Science Club®, a line of high-quality science tools ranging from microscopes and moonscopes to chemistry and compost sets, and more. Each product comes with an extensive activity journal featuring experiment ideas, stories, drawing and writing prompts, and more. Nancy’s goal with this line was to provide hands-on experience with real scientific tools, helping to get kids comfortable and excited about science, which in turn gives them the confidence to pursue science further in school and in life. The thriving line received both critical and consumer acclaim.

“I envision a future in which girls, as much as boys, are able to pursue their interests in science and math.”

– Nancy Balter

Today, Nancy is sharing her love of science with students all over by designing and sharing science curricula (available on Teacher Toy Shop). Students around the world can dissect flowers, build models of skeletons and volcanoes, and laugh their way through funny science lessons, courtesy of Nancy’s quirky sense of science-based humor.

Mom of two, Nancy is also involved in her kids’ school science programs and loves curling up with her daughter in front of a NOVA science episode and sharing all she knows about black holes.

Mary Jo Reutter

Mary Jo Reutter is the principal of You-Betcha Interactive, a Los Angeles based game and toy invention firm. She’s worked on popular games for everyone from preschoolers to baby boomers, including several Educational Insights best-sellers. This year’s smash hit Dice of Fury™, the furiously fast dice game where players roll and reroll in a race to match a challenge card – all while flexing their mental math skills – is a Mary Jo invention.

“While other kids imagined being sports heroes or movie stars, I dreamed of the day I’d see a product I developed in somebody’s shopping cart.”

– Mary Jo Reutter

After a kindergarten teacher shared the career choices for women – teacher or nurse – Mary Jo swore she would follow her heart and her dreams. And she did! She credits her parents for their support – her super-inventive dad lit her invention bug, while her working mom confirmed her suspicions that women could do and be anything they wanted.

While inventing toys and games is certainly not easy, Mary Jo is doing what she loves. She’s self-motivated, which keeps her busy, and has a thick skin, which sees her through the inevitable rejections while she waits for her next big hit.  And seeing one of her concepts come to life on a store shelf makes it all worth it. Mary Jo advises young women (and men) to create something new every day, whether writing in a journal, making up a song, taking photos, or drawing doodles.

“Remember that you are a creative being! Your creative expression is what makes life juicy, fun, and uniquely yours.”

– Mary Jo Reutter

Kim Vandenbroucke

Kim Vandenbroucke, founder of Brainy Chick Inc, is an award-winning creative thinker who has spent nearly 20 years inventing, designing, and developing toys and games for the mass and specialty markets. She has a passion for brainstorming which she shares with her office dog, Otis.

Kim has worked with Educational Insights for many years, and is responsible for several of our best-selling, award-winning, skill-building preschool games. Her Raccoon Rumpus™ has preschoolers rolling dice and choosing clothing cards for a band of marauding raccoons, all while developing matching skills. Kim’s Koala Capers™ card game builds pattern recognition and observation skills as players take turns rolling dice and searching cards for a crazy Koala match. And her Panda Rollers®, the game of color-matching panda-monium, features an all-play play pattern perfect for impatient preschoolers.

“With all of the games I create, I'm aiming for kids and families to make happy memories.”

– Kim Vandenbroucke

Kim has wanted to be an inventor since middle school. She loves the idea of solving problems creatively and coming up with brand new things. Despite not learning about many women inventors in school and being told that being an inventor wasn’t a real career, she landed a job as a toy and game inventor with an invention firm straight out of college.

Kim’s goal is to help kids learn to have fun while playing games, even if they don’t end up the winner. After all, not all of Kim’s ideas are winners! In fact, her advice to future toy inventors is to keep moving forward. Sometimes an idea isn't quite there, but often it's just bad timing or the wrong idea for the wrong company. Either way, Kim advises everyone to keep moving forward and thinking of new ideas.

“It's okay to fail or have an idea be rejected. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again.” –

Kim Vandenbroucke

If you’ve got a tiny tinkerer or a pint-sized problem solver at home, share the stories of these awesome inventors. Who knows – you might be raising the next terrific toy or great game inventor!