Girlware that's not just nice

So, tell us what you found. Do girls like computers?
Girls like computers when they're doing something with them that's useful or interesting. And they don't when they're not.

I think that boys, because of the way they establish their sense of self-worth and their standing among other boys, are more competitive in terms of how well they perform at something: the initials on the arcade game thing. It's a much more acceptable way of establishing yourself with your peers for boys. So they've had a lot of built-in attraction to the culture of computing thus far, both as game players and as programmers.

Girls aren't motivated by the same things, or at least not in the same way. Although they are looking for similar sorts of gratification, there are alot of taboos and caveats surrounding the way they can act on those impulses.

I guess the short answer is there's no reason why girls shouldn't like computers. When you give them something to do with a computer that engages them in some meaningful way, then it's probably not the case that they like the computer. They just like what they're doing and they'll reach through the problems with the technology to do it.

We looked some at girls making movies. I was astonished--they'll just whackaway at a camera or a VCR, just flail at it until it does what they want. They won't read the manual, they won't ask Dad to help. Once they get the idea that they can make a movie, they'll just judo-chop the thing until it works right. I've seen similar behavior with girls and computers when they're really highly motivated.

There seem to be two minds in the pink software arena: either it's fun or it's good for you. Can you do both? I mean, shouldn't girls be allowed to have fun too?
Can it be good and good for you too?

We hope that we've found some territory that other companies haven't explored: what it's like to be a girl. But, make no mistake, we are doing things that are for fun. We don't want to sell them to schools, we don't see them as belonging in the edutainment category.

The reason we spent all this time and money and effort and passion talking to girls and trying to understand them was to give them something that deeply engages them. Luckily that's also a kind of a successful business proposition we hope. I'm in a happy position finally of doing something that my heart says is right that may also make money! [Laughs] I like to say I'm a recovering self-marginalizer!