Women in LEGO Star Wars: building a space in the community

The ever-growing popularity of LEGO Star Wars means there’s more diversity than ever in the typically male-dominated fandom, so we spoke with female creators about their experiences.

It’s no secret that LEGO Star Wars is a male-dominated space, from the designers of the sets to the fans who build them. However, the growing popularity of LEGO as a hobby, evidenced by the company’s surge in growth since 2020 and the ever-growing selection of sets within the LEGO Botanical Collection and Art theme, means that more people are coming to love and build LEGO Star Wars – and that brings with it more diversity.

Two relatively recent members of the community are HollyOnFilm and NickiBricks, two female LEGO creators who are both fans and creators within the world of LEGO Star Wars. We sat down with both of them to learn more about their experiences with LEGO Star Wars as women.

Both creators came to LEGO Star Wars during the pandemic, on the search for a new hobby – just like hundreds of thousands of other people around the world. For Holly, this served somewhat as an introduction to Star Wars as well, while for Nicki, she had been a fan of the franchise since childhood.

Breaking into LEGO Star Wars as a new creator

When Holly was growing up, she can only remember there being one female LEGO Star Wars creator, The Brick Queen, so the lack of women in the space was certainly something that she was aware of. However, this awareness was partly what she believes allowed her to integrate into the community relatively quickly.

“I think I helped myself because I was very self-aware,” Holly says. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m a new fan, I don’t know what’s going on, I haven’t watched the films – please correct me.’

“Of course, you would initially get a lot of the old ‘women can’t like Star Wars’ comments; it’s always going to happen. But over the last couple of years, that’s disappeared for the most part. People are a lot more aware, they’re a lot more accepting and those are the people that I try to think about the most.”

Nicki remembers facing similar obstacles when first entering the LEGO Star Wars space.

“It took a while for people to respect my opinion because I was so new,” she recalls. “I do think it was made a little bit harder [due to being a woman], as it is a male-dominated hobby and some guys would ask: ‘What would you know about Star Wars? What would you know about Anakin Skywalker?’

“It’s hard not to think, ‘Why on earth are you asking me that question? If I was a guy, I don’t think that thought would even occur to you.’”

Existing as a woman online can sometimes result in negative messages or harassment, with statistics from the Council of Europe conducted for International Women’s Day 2024 highlighting that 58% of women have experienced online harassment and 46% of those stating that it was misogynistic or sexist in nature.

‘It almost felt like you had to prove yourself’

While neither Holly nor Nicki described feeling harassed online, their experiences do echo one another with needing to push past negative feedback for the first year or so of being active on the platform.

“It almost felt like you had to prove yourself in some way,” Holly explains. “I hate the fact that it has to be like that. At least for me, I had a long history with LEGO as a brand, so that shook people. They could see I wasn’t just posing because LEGO is super popular then because of COVID, but I actually knew what I was talking about.”

Nicki was also quick to pull on her deep knowledge of Star Wars lore to prove the naysayers wrong and has since been welcomed into the LEGO Star Wars community. However, the fact that it was ever an obstacle to begin with remains.

“There’s a lot of people who come to me for Star Wars content, which makes me feel good and validated, but I thought it was a little silly in the beginning, to be honest,” she adds.

New creators offer new perspectives

Once women have found their home in the LEGO Star Wars community, there are plenty of exciting doors available to them. Even within a galaxy far, far away, female characters are taking on more and more central roles, whether that’s Ahsoka getting her titular TV show (joined by strong female leads Hera and Sabine), Rey taking the mantle of Skywalker in the sequel trilogy, or Bo-Katan Kryze playing a growing role in The Mandalorian.

Different types of people can bring unique perspectives. Nicki describes sharing her excitement with fellow female Star Wars fans after adding glitter to Mandalorian armour and loving being able to combine a love of femininity with Star Wars.

“The prequel movies are my favourite, especially because of Padmé, Queen Amidala, because I was a very feminine girl. She’s just so elegant and beautiful – but she also has a blaster,” Nicki laughs.

As a relatively new LEGO Star Wars fan, Holly remembers being the only woman and one of the youngest people at her first LEGO Ambassador Network event and knowing that she could bring something new to the table.

“There would be a new X-wing come out and some people think, ‘Oh, here’s another one’ – but for me, it was my first one,” she says. “I was offering something different and that really helped. Those sets aren’t for the long-term fans, this is for someone like me.”

Tips for LEGO Star Wars newcomers in 2024

What Holly, Nicki, and other female LEGO Star Wars fans and creators highlight is that there are spaces ready and waiting for others to join them – and these two YouTubers in particular are keen for more women and girls to join the community.

“Someone might throw a comment at you about not being a real LEGO fan, or you’re not a real Star Wars fan, and you might feel the urge to pull away – but don’t do that,” advises Holly. “The vast majority of the community is so welcoming and lovely. 

“It’s really hard to ignore some of those things half the time, but if they want to believe that, then that’s on them. You shouldn’t have to prove yourself.”

“As much as there is truth behind there being difficulty being a woman in a very heavily opinionated and male-dominated fandom, there are also plenty of positives,” Nicki adds. “I want there to be more girls who aren’t intimidated and who are welcome to come in and create. I’ve noticed more and more female creators joining the space all the time and that makes me so happy.”

You can find Holly on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, and Nicki on Instagram and YouTube.

Featured image: HollyOnFilm

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