I’ve heard it said that “ask and you shall receive”, but I guess in this case it’s more like petition and you shall get heard. After starting a petition asking Hasbro to make their Easy-Bake Oven a more gender-neutral toy, McKenna Pope got her wish and more.
If you haven’t heard of McKenna Pope, she’s the 13-year-old girl from New Jersey who questioned Hasbro on why they don’t make a gender-neutral Easy-Bake oven. It all started after her four-year-old brother, an avid baker, told her he thought the current model was too girly. Thinking that a simple letter wouldn’t get her point across, McKenna started a petition on change.org. After McKenna got 40,000 signatures and support from celebrity chefs, Hasbro responded. Not only have they decided to put out a black and silver version of the popular toy sometime in 2013, they also gave McKenna and her brother a tour of the company which included a sneak peek at the prototype for the new oven.
McKenna was delighted by Hasbro’s response, and her little brother “was ecstatic” with the tour and the change in design. But McKenna doesn’t see this as the end of the gender-neutral toy battle. She believes that “the toy industry is truly dominated by gender stereotypes” and that it’s time to make other toys gender-neutral as well.
Photos via hasbro.com, thecookinginn.com
