Barrier-breaking women of NASA immortalized by Lego

Soon, Lego will add four iconic women to the ranks of their pocket-sized figurines -- a group of scientists, astronauts and engineers considered some of the most influential people ever to walk the halls of NASA.

Lego’s Women of NASA set goes on sale Nov. 1, and it’s all thanks to science journalist Maia Weinstock, who pitched the idea to the toy company as a way to send a positive message to young girls.

Weinstock played with Lego as a kid, and started making her own figurines of scientists and engineers around 2009 as a way to give them “a bit more visibility.”

So when the opportunity to propose new ideas for Lego sets came up in 2016, Weinstock knew exactly who she wanted to include.

She chose computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, “Mother of Hubble” Nancy Grace Roman, and astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison to be included in her pitch.

In less than a month, Weinstock’s idea drew the 10,000 public votes it needed to reach Lego judges, who approved it for production in early 2017.

All four women made the set.

“It happened pretty quickly, so you had a sense it had some momentum,” Weinstock told CTV News Channel on Friday.

A big chunk of that support came from NASA itself, according to NASA chief historian Bill Barry.

“When the voting came up on the Lego website … the word went around NASA headquarters like wildfire,” Barry said. “Everybody was really excited about it.”

Weinstock said that, as a child of the 1980s, her personal role model is Sally Ride, who became the first American woman to fly in space on June 18, 1983.

Becoming immortalized in plastic is a fitting tribute for Ride, whose legacy includes championing science and math education for girls.

Weinstock hopes that the little figurines can be both an educational building block and source of inspiration for budding scientists, no matter their gender.

“I would love to hear in 20 or 30 years that an astronaut who’s walking on the moon or maybe an engineer or scientist who helped her get there played with these as a kid and was inspired to go into a STEM field.”