female leads for toddler

[BonnyE]

Hi. Not sure if posting in right place, but felt appropriate. Any suggestions for tv and books with female leads suitable for toddlers (DD is 21 months).
Currently loves Bob the Builder* and it was DH who questioned if we should try and find other programmes with females in centre roles (to complement Bob, not replace of course). Also loves books so thought I'd broaden the question.

• not intended to be debate about screen time. She watches CBeebies very occasionally and I'm very selective! Grateful for any suggestions Thanks

Cbeebies has made quite an effort with this (with a few exceptions, looking at you Peter Rabbit) add Do You Know to the list. For little ones Woolly and Tig? Second Sarah and Duck. Apple Tree House has 2 out of 3 of leads as female although good for slightly older kids. Let's Play is also good as they are sharp on not corresponding to gender stereotypes so Sid will be a ballerina and Rebecca a builder. The lead in Yakka Dee is a girl.

Books-the Mighty Girl website has a massive list, although quite American in flavour. Some of our favourites are-
Handa's Surprise/Hen
My Big Shouting Day
The Grace books (older kids really)
Rosie Revere engineer and the others in that series
Maisy books
My 3yo still loves The Baby Catalogue--really about families and so you can have a chat about different things mummies and daddies do (eg some go to work, some stay at home)
Some of the Babette Cole books
Come away from the water, Shirley
The way to the Zoo

Some to go on with!

I don't know why that crossed out! You get the idea.

Another vote for Emily Brown books, we loved them.

Another vote for Doc McStuffins. The little girl is a toy doctor and her mother is an actual doctor rather than a toy one generally speaking all the strong roles in this are female.

Thinking about it I'm surprised men haven't maligned it for being male critical.

Nella the princess knight
Do you know
Caties amazing machines
Bitz and bobs
Cbeebies have loads of great programmes with female leads....

Also, I've read goodnight stories for rebel girls to my kids since they were little they love it (apart from one story in it which I avoid)

If you are reading 'gender neutral' stories eg about animals, you can just turn the lead into a female using pronouns and perhaps changing the name.

You've really got to concentrate as you read which can feel like a step too far if it's been a busy day (!) but it suddenly a) opens up loads more options and b) makes the patriarchy surrounding us depressingly obvious.

Peppa pig is a little shit though. Just pointing that out.

My littlest is a bit older and we haven’t had a proper telly since before she was born but she loves these books, most of which are about women who did marvellous things:

www.waterstones.com/booklist/377114/little-people-big-dreams-series

Some titles come in board books for toddlers.

Another option is Barbie films. Barbie is a very strong character in many of them, and doesn't need a male character to save her, she saved the day. They are a bit pink and glittery.

Frozen is also a fab film for strong Disney princesses!

Check out the A Mighty Girl website and FB page. They have excellent lists of books for all ages on all sorts of different topics, but all promoting strong females. Really helpful.

A Mighty Girl preschool list

Moana is another film with a strong female lead character

Netflix have a 'girls take the lead' section.

Do children still like Charlie and Lola? She was definitely in charge!

Rebecca Patterson - My Big Shouting Day.
Shirley Hughes - Moving Molly, plus Dogger features an excellent big sister

Thanks everyone. Loads of great inspiration here looking forward to exploring with DD. She's such a strong character I really want to encourage her as much as I can X

Moana and Spirit - riding free (on Netflix) are DD’s favourites