My 8 year old has always loved pandas and trains and balls.  She plays with dolls on occasion, but her barbies tend to be highly athletic (ski, roller blade, bike) and tend not to like to wear frilly things or generally any clothes at all!  She plays pirates and Jedis, builds amazing things with legos and K’Nex, but also plays mommy and teacher to her stuffed bears, loves to cook (both pretend and in real life) and she loves arts and crafts.  She herself is athletic, coordinated and generally high energy.  She prefers yoga and Tak-won-do to dance.  Although she makes friends with boys easier and probably has more boy friends than girl friends, she plays equally well with girls and boys.  She plays ’princessy’ things with the most feminine girls, and then organizes them to be Jedis saving the world from the bad guys.  When she has friends over she suggests playing house, grocery store, running a farm, building with legos, playing marbles, playing with kitchen littles and computer games regardless of whether the friend is male or female. Upon many occasions, she is the only girl invited to an all boy party and they all compete for her attention! A mom related to me that her son had said that no girls are going to be invited to his birthday and then had given her the list of people he wanted to invite. She pointed out to him that my daughter’s name is on the list; the son smirked and said, "yes, but she is a really cool girl."  I guess to end my long comment, I would say that although her behavior and toy preferences may be more ’boy like’ I find her a very well balanced child:)