A Girl’s Best Friend: Celebrating Creativity Through Animal Friendships
by on 02/04/2026 ...
The LEGO Group’s She Built That initiative continues to empower girls to imagine, create, and connect with their favourite animal companions.
MALAYSIA, 4 March 2026 – The LEGO Group launches an exciting new chapter in its She Built That campaign to celebrate the powerful bonds girls create with their favourite animal – both real and toy – helping them discover the power of connection, confidence and creativity through friendships they build with their animal bestie.
First launched in 2025, She Built That was created to challenge outdated stereotypes that can limit girls’ potential, encouraging them to see themselves as builders in every sense of the word. Global research commissioned by the LEGO Group reinforces this mission, highlighting the meaningful role animal friendships play in supporting girls’ development and imagination.
Animal friendships fuel creativity and confidence
A global study[1] of 13,250 children across 13 countries commissioned by the LEGO Group found that friendships with animals, from real pets to toy companions, can significantly boost girls’ creativity, confidence and emotional well-being. The research shows girls often form especially strong bonds with animal friends, with many saying these companions inspire imagination, teach kindness and responsibility, and even serve as trusted confidants, highlighting the powerful role play and connection can have in shaping self-belief.
To bring this idea to life, the LEGO Group has partnered with wildlife conservationist and animal lover Bindi Irwin to inspire young builders around the world. Families can join a free online Build Your Bestie: Playful Pets workshop led by Bindi, now available on LEGO.com/CreativityWorkshops, where she guides children through fun animal-themed builds designed to spark storytelling, imagination, and hands-on creativity at home.
Inspiring creativity through playful building in Malaysia
Furthermore, LEGO Group has cultivated the spirit of creativity and connection into the real world with a series of interactive retail experiences and hands-on play opportunities such as the recent and successful LEGO Paw-fect Friends Forever Experience, where young builders came to explore storytelling, self-expression, and imaginative play through animal and nature builds.
Ágnes Molnár, Marketing Director of Singapore, Malaysia and APAC Travel Retail, The LEGO Group, said: “The global She Built That campaign celebrates how meaningful connections, including those with animals, can spark imagination, creativity, and confidence in girls. In Singapore and Malaysia, the Paw-fect Friends Forever Experience lets children build their own animal companions, explore playful worlds, and express themselves through hands-on activities. Through this, we hope to inspire young builders to embrace their creativity and see themselves as creators of their own stories.”
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[1] The global study was commissioned by the LEGO group and conducted with 13,250 children across 13 countries. For further details and key findings on the study, please see Annex A.
[2] Applicable LEGO themes: Friends, Creator, Disney (includes Disney Classic, Disney Princess, Disney Pixar; excludes Star Wars and Marvel), Gabby’s Dollhouse, DREAMZzz
Build Your Animal Bestie
The She Built That campaign celebrates creativity, storytelling and self-expression through a playful range of LEGO sets inspired by animals and nature, offering builds for every young creator who loves imaginative adventures with their favourite animal companions. From charming wildlife builds in the LEGO Creator series to friendship-filled storytelling sets from LEGO Friends and beloved Disney character icons, there’s a set designed to spark confidence, creativity and hands-on fun for every builder.
These sets are available across LEGO® Certified Stores (LCS), LEGO® Official Store on Lazada, Shopee, as well as major retailers and department stores in Malaysia.
Gift-with-purchase promotions are also available. Shoppers with a minimum spending of RM179 on LEGO Friends, Disney, Creator, LEGO Dreamzzz and Gabby’s Dollhouse sets, will receive a 30715 LEGO Creator Cute Animal Birthday Party from now till 26 March, and a 30720 LEGO Disney Ariel & Flounder’s Birthday Music Fun from 27 March to 14 April, as an additional gift exclusively at LEGO Certified Stores, while stocks last.
For more information, visit the LEGO Malaysia website.
About the LEGO Group
The LEGO Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through the power of play. The LEGO System in Play, with its foundation in LEGO bricks, allows children and fans to build and rebuild anything they can imagine.
The LEGO Group was founded in Billund, Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, its name derived from the two Danish words LEg GOdt, which mean “Play Well”.
Today, the LEGO Group remains a family-owned company headquartered in Billund. Its products are now sold in more than 120 countries worldwide. For more information: www.LEGO.com
The LEGO Group Global Survey
About the Survey
A global study of 13,250 children across 13 countries[1], commissioned by the LEGO Group, reveals that animal besties have a big impact on girls’ personal growth, with friendships with animals – both pets and toys – significantly boosting their creative confidence and emotional well-being. The research revealed that girls form stronger bonds with pets and animal toys than boys, playing a bigger role in their social lives.
Key findings include:
- Playing with animal toys helps boost girls’ happiness (40%), imagination (36%), creativity (34%) and self-confidence (18%).
- Animals play a role in teaching important values and skills with two in five (41%) girls saying a pet has taught them how to be caring, kind and look after others.
- Animal toys inspire creativity with 31% of girls saying their animal toy motivated them to draw, write, or build something new.
- For 37% of girls at least one of their favourite memories involves a pet (30% for toy animals), while 36% reveal that some of their happiest moments are spent being silly or creative with them (30% for toy animals).
- Over half of girls globally (51%) describe their friendship with pets as comforting – with 34% saying it’s supportive and almost a third defining it as adventurous (30%).
- Girls are twice as likely to confide in their pet (36%) or toy animal (26%) than a trusted teacher (11%) when it comes to sharing feelings, worries and secrets.
[3] The survey polled 13,250 children aged 6-16 across 13 markets which include US, UK, Germany, China, Poland, Turkiye, Australia/New Zealand, France, Romania, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and Brazil
