Malala and McKenna
The only women or girls featured in one recent Dick’s Sporting Goods basketball catalog are in the stands, according to 12-year-old McKenna Peterson of Arizona. No girls are shown dishing assists, driving to the hoop or contemplating free throws. That boys’ stuff, apparently. That didn’t seem right to McKenna Peterson–but more importantly it didn’t seem normal. Young McKenna is an athlete and so are lots of her friends. They spend a lot of time on the basketball court. So Peterson wrote to Dick’s to say what’s up with that? She signed her letter “The Fabulous Basketball Player.” Her father posted the letter on Twitter (see below) where people can’t stop talking about it. McKenna can now add “The Fabulous Letter Writer” to her title.
The young Peterson’s tone is cordial (“I really DO enjoy going to your store”). She’s just out to inform the giant retailer that it’s missing something. A big thing. Half the population big. McKenna’s father (a sports journalist!) reports that Dick’s has reached out to McKenna with gratitude and a promise to “reevaluate” their catalog. The power of one young girl to influence a giant corporation comes the same week that Malala Yousafzai of Afghanistan wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala famously started a worldwide movement when she was 14 to win education for young women in parts of the world where they are even less visible than a girl in a Dick’s basketball catalog. Lesson, and may it be a loud one: You can change the world no matter who or where you are–even if you’re in the 6th grade. Malala and McKenna!
My 12yr old basketball loving daughter got the latest @DICKS catalog & had a big problem with it. She wrote a letter. pic.twitter.com/MH46ktNOaw
— ChrisPetersonTCS (@TheCheapSeatsTV) October 9, 2014
