Seven-year-olds rarely mince their words. And youngester Charlotte Benjamin didn’t beat around the bush when she wrote this letter to Lego, criticizing the company for not catering to girls.
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Benjamin accused Lego of not making enough girls’ toys and finding the few available ones not as fun compared to the boys’ toys.She explained that “all the girls did was sit home, go to the beach, and shop,” while the boy characters “went on adventures, worked, saved people, had jobs, even swam with sharks.” Benjamin closes the letter saying “I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok??”After this letter went viral Lego in February, Lego took notice and addressed the issue saying “we have been very focused on including more female characters and themes that invite even more girls to build.”And this week, LEGO released this:The 165-piece Research Institute features a female paleontologist, chemist and astronomer. The box cover shows them mixing chemicals in a lab, building a T-Rex model and peering through a telescope. Geophysicist Ellen Kooijman created the three characters and submitted the idea to Lego Ideas, a program that accepts suggestions from their customers. Kooijman celebrated the product writing “Cheers to science and good play!” in a blog post.The set is flying off the shelves. It was released on august first, but currently has a 30 day wait list.However, not everybody agrees with having Lego toys just for girls. A petition posted in 2011 on Change.org gathered thousands of signatures “to stop distinguishing between toys for girls and those for boys,” NPR reported.Whatever the case might be, it’s good to know that little kids like Charlotte can raise their voice and choose their own toys. And we’re all for women getting credit for their careers in the science fields.
