Girls Don’t Want to Be Princesses and Nurses When They Grow Up, Survery Shows

Are little girls today more interested in becoming doctors than divas?

A recently released nationwide survey reveals that more girls are interested in professions dealing with science, technology, engineering, and math (41 percent) than boys (32 percent). The Imagination Report, conducted in October by a new site called Fatherly, included 500 kids between ages one and 10.

The most popular profession for young girls? Doctor, at 16 percent, followed by teacher (7 percent), scientist (4.5 percent) and chef (4 percent).

Compare this to the 16 percent of boys surveyed who chose ‘pro athlete’ as their favorite job, followed by firefighter (5 percent), engineer (5 percent) and astronaut (4 percent).

Fatherly, a self-described parenting resource geared toward “men who understand that embracing what they've become doesn't mean giving up who they are,” is the work of Simon Isaacs, 35.

Isaacs, a former professional marathon runner and the father of a nine-month-old baby girl named Kaia, began his career at the Clinton Foundation and Ted Turner’s UN Foundation before getting into “cause marketing” for philanthropic companies, according to Forbes.

His desire to create Fatherly emerged when he began noticing the abundance of “Mom blogs” offering parenting tips for mothers. This project was his attempt to offer comparable resources and advice for dads.

Only 35 percent of kids surveyed expressed the desire to pursue STEM careers, but the girl-to-boy ratio is impressive nonetheless. Photo courtesy of Fatherly.com.

Fatherly’s kids career survey results note that, though more girls seem to be interested in so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects, “princess” still ranked seventh on the list of ideal jobs for girls.

Only 35 percent of kids surveyed expressed the desire to pursue STEM careers, but the girl-to-boy ratio is impressive nonetheless.

The Fatherly results include a range of clear-cut infographics, but if left as such, the author notes, one misses much of the humor present in the responses themselves.

Among some of the answers deemed “too unique to be caught in the Imagination Report's data dredge.” They include: “kitty cat,” “mattress tester,” “fixer,” "beast master,” "pop princess," “dinosaur," "American ninja warrior," “gold finder” and, wait for it, “hedge fund manager."