Puzzlette is a double-sided jigsaw puzzle and board game celebrating feminist icons.

The Young Enterprise programme tasks students with one mission: set up and run a company. What you build and how you do it entirely up to you. When I sat down with 24 of my classmates to brainstorm ideas for our company, our all-female team agreed that no matter what we created, it had to be a product with a mission that we believed in.

Because of quarantine restrictions in London, where our team is based, we had to quickly adapt to Zoom meetings starting in autumn 2020. Despite technical difficulties as we adjusted to our virtual brainstorming sessions, our supportive team dynamic allowed for fruitful discussion. One of the first topics that came up during our brainstorm was the coronavirus’ long-term impact on women. A recent United Nations study warned that the pandemic could reverse decades of advancement for gender equality. The COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected jobs with high levels of female employees, forcing many women into traditional domestic roles. To date, more women have lost their jobs during the pandemic than men.

With gender equality under threat, we decided to create a company that would inspire girls in the U.K. and remind them of all the incredible things they’re capable of achieving. We knew that when it comes to young people pursuing their ambitions, seeing is believing. A study in the U.K. by Microsoft found that 20% more girls could imagine a career for themselves in STEM when they had a role model compared to those who don’t. This research inspired us to create a product that helps expose girls to female role models in an entertaining and interactive way.

While brainstorming ideas, we deliberated creating a dual-language learning book. Although this idea embodied our commitment to education, we wanted to develop a more engaging and innovative product. With jigsaw puzzle sales soaring over lockdown, we decided to capitalise on this momentum and create a two-in-one double-sided jigsaw puzzle and trivia board game that would tell girls the stories of powerful women.

The first step was to decide which female leaders to feature on our puzzle and board game. We reached out to girls at our school to get a sense of the women who motivated them. COVID-19 restrictions within our school prevented face-to-face contact, so we decided to send an online survey to all students. The response was incredible. “Malala inspired me by proving that anyone can make a difference if they are fighting for something they believe in,” shared one student. “Greta Thunberg has inspired me to make small changes that help reduce my carbon footprint,” explained another. “The way Katherine Johnson pursued her passion for Maths against all odds inspires me,” said a third. Using their feedback, we chose seven women to feature on the puzzle: Billie Jean King, Frida Kahlo, Greta Thunberg, Katherine Johnson, Malala Yousafzai, Maya Angelou and Vivienne Westwood. As a diverse group of girls with different aspirations for the future, we wanted to feature role models who represented all of us and all of our ambitions.

We then set out to design both sides of the game. Using illustrations developed by our classmate and amazing artist Ella Burke, we created one side with a puzzle with a graphic of our role models and the other with a trivia-based family board game that has question cards to help the player learn about the accomplishments of these amazing women. After seeking out a local, sustainable supplier to produce our product, Puzzlette was born! We printed across the background of the puzzle artwork and the board game quotes from the girls we surveyed about how these seven icons inspire them.

We’ve received amazing support for Puzzlette since launching our product in February 2021. Becky Small, the project lead at the educational charity The Female Lead, said, “[Puzzlette is] going to inspire young women to find success and fulfilment in their own lives and on their own terms.” One customer called Puzzlette “an engaging and educational game for all.”

Hearing how children are using our product to discover new role models and learn about the lives and legacies of these women confirms that we’ve achieved Puzzlette’s primary objective: to empower, educate and entertain the next generation of young leaders.