Her grandmother, Sterling Sturtevant, was an Academy Award-winning[citation needed] art director for animated films who worked for Walt Disney, Playhouse Pictures, UPA and Charles Schulz; science fiction author Amy Sterling Casil is her aunt.

She found appeal in combining skills in art, design, mechanics and physics in order to tackle and solve complex problems.

While Sterling says she enjoyed the work, she wanted to contribute to the world in a more meaningful way, spending time volunteering at various organizations such as the Peace Corps.

This time spent abroad allowed her to realize non profit was not her calling in life, so she once again searched for something else, eventually landing a job in jewelry making in 2009.

[9] After initially trying to gain support for GoldieBlox at a New York toy fair, Sterling launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly $300,000.