VOA双语新闻：8、女童服装新主张：爱裙子也爱圆周率（在线收听）

女童服装新主张：爱裙子也爱圆周率

Many little girls like dolls, flowers, butterflies and ponies. A lot of them also like cars, robots, dinosaurs, and spaceships. But most girls clothes only feature the flowers, butterflies and ponies. Two mothers decided to make clothes that reflect all the things that little girls are, and do, and love.

很多小女孩都喜欢洋娃娃、鲜花、蝴蝶和小马。还有很多女孩，她们也喜欢汽车、机器人、恐龙和太空飞船。但很多女童服装款式只有花、蝴蝶和小马的图案。于是，两位母亲决定制做包括所有女孩喜爱图案的衣服。

Six-year-old Bella loves to build houses and cars with Lego blocks.

六岁的贝拉喜欢用“乐高”积木玩具来搭房子和汽车。

“I like Barbie and also dinosaurs," said Bella.

她说：“我喜欢芭比娃娃，也喜欢恐龙。”

So her dress has dinosaurs on it.

所以呢，她穿了一件有恐龙图案的裙子。

“I need a train to put on the train track," said her friend Penny, who also likes Lego.

她的好朋友佩妮也喜欢乐高。

“I like to make trucks," she said.

她说： “我喜欢搭大卡车。”

The four-year old also likes pink and purple, and the dress she is wearing.

这名四岁的小女孩也喜欢粉色和紫色，也喜欢她身上这条裙子。

“She really enjoys wearing it. It’s bright, comfortable, and unique," said Penny mother Cathy Tramontana.

佩妮的母亲凯西?特拉蒙塔娜说：“她特别喜欢这衣服。颜色很明亮，很舒服，很特别。”

Unique because it has a pattern of the mathematical symbol pi. Tramontana says the design opens the door to a conversation about math.

特别之处就是因为这上面有圆周率的数学符号。特拉蒙塔娜说，这种设计为向她介绍数学打开了大门。

“We haven’t found this type of dress in a store," she said.

“我们还没有在商店里看到过这种裙子。”她说。

The pi and dinosaur dresses are from a new girl’s clothing line called Princess Awesome. Company co-founder Rebecca Melsky says their dresses feature some designs more typically found on boys' clothes.

这些裙子来自一个新的女童服装生产线“公主好棒”（Princess Awesome）。公司创始人之一丽贝卡?梅尔斯基说，她们公司的裙子设计上有那些一般用在男童服装上的图案。

"I think that a girl wearing a dress with science on it. She is telling the world that is something she is interested in. She can love girly things and also love science. It tells that science is just as much for girls as it is for boys," said Melsky.

她说： “我想，如果一个小女孩穿的裙子上有科学图案，那她就是在告诉世界，我喜欢科学。她可以喜欢一般女孩喜欢的东西，同时也喜欢科学。这表明了女孩和男孩一样可以喜欢科学。”

It all started two years ago when Melsky was shopping for her 2-year-old, who refused to wear anything but a dress. She bought pajamas mostly from the boys’ section because her daughter also liked robots, trucks and spaceships.

这一切都从两年前开始，那时梅尔斯基为她两岁的女儿买衣服，而她女儿除了裙子什么也不穿。但睡衣大多是从男童服装部买的，因为她女儿也喜欢机器人、卡车和宇宙飞船。

“One day I walked out past the girls’ section of the store, I thought to myself we should make one of those cute dresses that also have a robot on it or a dinosaur because she will wear that. She will love that. Someone should do that. Maybe I should do that," she said.

梅尔斯基说：“有一天我路过商店女童服装部的时候，我想，我们应该按照那个可爱的裙子式样，做件上面有机器人或是恐龙图案的裙子，我女儿肯定会穿。她肯定会特别喜欢。这个事情该有人做。或许我就该做这个事情。”

Her friend Eva St. Clair agreed she should, and their business was born. Melsky, a school teacher with two children, and St. Clair, a part-time Web developer with four children, got together on Saturdays.

她的好友伊娃?克莱尔也这样想。于是，有两个孩子的老师梅尔斯基和有四个孩子的兼职网络设计师每周六聚在一起，开始了创业之旅。

They used fabrics featuring trucks, planes, pirates and atoms. They also created art dresses based on works by Van Gogh and Monet.

她们使用的布料上有卡车、飞机、海盗和原子图案。她们设计的裙子上也有梵高和莫纳艺术作品的图案。

“Usually Rebecca and I would be down in my basement. Rebecca would cut and I would stitch. And we got to where we could do about four in an hour," said St. Clair.

公主好棒的共同创始人伊娃?克莱尔说：“我跟丽贝卡一般在我家的地下室工作。丽贝卡负责剪裁，我负责缝纫。现在我们大概一个小时能做四件。”

The first batch of 70 dresses sold out at St. Clair’s church bazaar. So the founders took their business online. The dresses sold very well there, too.

第一批70件裙子在克莱尔教堂的集会上一抢而空。于是，这两位创办人开始网上销售，生意也是特别的好。

"They sold out so fast that we could not make them fast enough. We decided it is time to figure out how to go into a factory," she said.

克莱尔说：“卖的太好了，我们制作的速度根本赶不上。我们决定，现在是去工厂进行批量生产的时候了。”

So they turned to a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign. They met their goal of $35,000 within days and raised more than $215,000 total in pledges.

她们借助筹款网站Kickstarter来进行社会集资。几天内，就达到了3万5千美元的筹款要求，承诺出资的总额达到了21万5千美元。

“Our biggest challenge is going to be how we expand as rapidly as people seem to want us to," said St. Clair.

克莱尔说：“我们最大的挑战就是，怎么跟上人们需求的速度来扩大我们的生产线。”

The founders hope Princess Awesome will expand into products for girls of all ages and all interests.

两位创始人希望公主好棒能够为所有年龄和不同兴趣的小女孩提供各种产品。