Play for All

At SandArtNW, it's important that our SandArt (and everything else you find in our shop) are never categorised by gender. Play is crucial for children's development and children are bombarded by outdated gender stereotypes from an early age and we don't think gender categories are helpful or necessary.

Let Toys Be Toys is on a mission to stop some manufacturers and retailers limiting children’s interests by promoting toys and books as only suitable for girls, and others only for boys. It is a grassroots campaign organised by parents who were frustrated by the increase in marketing and promotion to children that pushed narrow stereotypes.

The Let Toys Be Toys Toymark recognises retailers that are doing a great job of offering toys to girls and boys alike.

At SandArtNW you wont find a "Girls" section, and you won't find a "Boys" section - this is because we KNOW that there are no girls only pictures - or boy only pictures. This also applies to our sand, we dont have boy colours or girl colours - we just have lots of different colours of sand for everyone.

It's not hard. It's not complicated, and we like to keep it just that way.

But we do have a confession to make...As a small business selling arts and crafts products, we do find that we are often asked what pictures we have that are suitable for boys - a bit weird that we never get asked which are good for girls...possibly that society deems Arts & Crafts more of a girls product?

So I will be creating a section for pictures that are "Good for boys" - but here's the secret...it will simply contain all the pictures we have - it may be seen as cheeky but during our research we found that boys quite happily made bunches of flower pictures for their mums or they would quite happily complete a butterfly picture in pinks and purples - so this category is simply for helping the grownups, who more often than not, are used to distinguishing between girls and boys toys - hopefully it will show them there is no point!

Here's to another happy year promoting toys and play for everyone!

Let Toys be Toys Award - 2020