Brain Game: Boy or Girl?

Enjoy a new Word Ladder puzzle as today's mentalfloss.com Brain Game Wednesday Wordplay challenge. Good luck:

By changing one letter in each step to form English words, and leaving all other letters in their original positions, convert PINK into BLUE in the fewest possible steps.

P I N K _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ B L U E

Here is an 8-step SOLUTION.

AN 8-STEP SOLUTION:

P I N K
F I N K
F I N D
F E N D
F E E D
F L E D
F L E E
F L U E
B L U E

Did you come up with a different sequence of words (longer, shorter, or the same length)? Please share your solution with us in the comments below. Thanks for playing!