After dinner last night, my daughter was perusing an American Girl catalogue and occasionally looked up with dismay. Not only had she noticed the fact that there was an inequity in the representation of the white vs visible minority dolls, but before we knew it, she had taken out her computer and asked for our input on a letter she was going to send. We talked about target audience, but that made her even more upset. “Why are they assuming that only white kids can afford it and if that’s true, then that’s a problem, isn’t it?” My younger daughter (13) and I helped her with the wording and before we could re-read it, she had found the company’s email and sent it off.
Here is her letter:
Hello American Girl,
I am fifteen years old, and I am proud to say American Girl was a big part of my childhood. Though I have grown out of it, I continue to receive the catalogue and I enjoy looking through it every time I get it. I just received your November 2015 catalogue and couldn’t help but notice the fact that visible minorities aren’t equally as represented as whites. For example, in the Be Forever section of the magazine, the Jewish doll Rebecca and the African-American doll Addy only got a single page each without much detail, and the Native American doll and Mexican doll, Kaya and Josefina, weren’t represented at all. Whereas, the four other white dolls all had two page spreads or more. I appreciate your efforts in including different cultures in the catalogue, but young girls of these backgrounds will end up feeling worse about their differences when they realize the dolls that are like them aren’t represented as equally as the white girls are.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Sydney
I asked her if I could tweet it out, and she said, “Let’s wait to see how they respond,” which to me shows an understanding of the power of social media as well. She has not yet gotten a reply.
We have always raised our girls to be empathetic and to notice injustice around them. What a proud moment to see my daughter notice something that most kids would gloss over and then take action.
I’m sure my daughter isn’t the only one out there leveraging her power to DO. When I hear people talk about kids these days, I shake my head at their ignorance. There are likely more kids today taking action for good than there ever have been.
I’m definitely a proud momma!
