<human>: Can you provide a brief rundown of the text in within 3 sentences?

I have the best niece on the planet.  I've been selected as a kind of family steward for her, and as a part of that I'm making it my personal responsibility to guide her education and development so that, even if she doesn't choose to make something STEM a part of her career, she is literate in those areas.  

I am the first scientist in my family, and the hardest thing for me was to learn that you can't just 'phone in' your studies (we're a relatively intelligent bunch) like you can in High School and/or Liberal Arts/Business School.  It was also hard for me to get access to knowledge about what being in STEM was like (how the field works, what you need to do and know to advance), because there were no role models or mentors available to me.  As I noted up top, her mother (who is brilliant) is a Marketing Major so not a lot of help there.  I understand that I can't (and don't want to) *force* my niece into STEM, but I want it to be available to her as a career path (whereas for me, it was distant and ill-considered).  

My niece is just over 8 months now, and I want to get started early with dexterity and spatial relations toys.  My inclination is to just go with 'gender neutral' toys I would've killed for as a kid (as a male) ie a set of blocks that matched, lego, space posters.  In consulting with the scientist ladies I know, the consensus seems to be "I had/I wish I had the same toys that boys get (minus guns and killing, usually though not always)."  Is there something I'm missing?

(Full disclosure:  this is partially motivated by my not-too-long-ago freshman science classes that had a 10:1 male:female ratio)
<bot>: What kind of gifts can I buy my 8-year-old niece (now and over her lifespan) to subtly manipulate my niece into learning more about science?