I am raising two sons, who will be men one day. I would really like them to be men who engage with equality and feminism and who are into strong women. And while my house is full of all things Cars and Lego, I'm starting to feel like my elder son in particular needs to watch more stories that qualify under the Bechdel test. The idea of the test is to see if the story you're watching (or reading) supports strong female characters. Here's the test:

• The film, book or TV show has to have at least two women in it,
• who talk to each other,
• about something besides a man

(In my house we kind of add in "or an apparently male car/superhero vehicle.") Maybe that's why this TED talk caught my eye. Colin Stokes talks about his kids' movie obsessions and which messages his kids might take from them: In summary: Kids do take away messages from the movies they watch - and it will come as no surprise to any parent whose child has become obsessed with the Force that those stories can stay with them a long time. And it's not always older films that are lacking. It can be remarkably hard to find strong female characters in kids' movies being released right now. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the best series we've found at my house are the Tinkerbell movies. Although we haven't watched the most recent, they seem to focus on friendships and problem-solving among all the fairies - not on dating or marriage, and Tinkerbell interacts with all kinds of people. Do you keep an eye on your kids' media diet in terms of presenting strong female characters? Recommend your favourites!