UCL Millennium Cohort Study
Gender Stereotypes: Anti-Fairytale
Challenge
Research from the Millennium Cohort study considering the career aspirations of 7-14-year-old children highlighted a significant gender bias in the types of jobs boys and girls wanted to in later life.
Our challenge with ‘gender stereotypes: anti-fairytale’ was to bring the research to life through animation and create something both educational and engaging to our audience.
The project was aimed at two audiences; ages 7-11 and ages 11-14. The focus of this case study is on the latter.
Solution
We based our content in a fictional fairytale setting that challenged and poked fun at the stereotypical tropes commonly associated with this genre. We combined bold, familiar characters with subtle humor that played off of the audience’s preconceptions of the characters.
We extended the impact of the animation by creating a suite of learning content that could be easily deployed in schools and homes across the country.
Outcomes
The animation and learning content was released to schools nationally throughout 2019.
Lip Syncing
Implementing a vlogger as the narrator of the story meant that the intro and outro to the video required lip syncing.
Ensuring that the character’s movements complemented the words being said and timed correctly was essential in creating a believable narrator.
Toolkit Content
To ensure that the children engaged with the project and thought about what they had watched, we produced a Gender Stereotypes: Anti-Fairytale themed toolkit of activities that could be implemented in the classroom or at home. These ranged from quiz cards, to posters, to ‘create your own anti-fairytale’ frameworks.
Gender Stereotypes: Animals
The aim of this animation was to bring the Millennium Cohort study’s research to life for an audience with an age range of 7-11 years old. It highlights the impact of gender stereotypes using animal characters and creating a suite of learning content that could be easily deployed in schools and home across the country.
