How a 7-year-old girl's trip to Tesco helped 'Let Toys Be Toys'
A family鈥檚 trip to Tesco, a U.K.-based grocery and general merchandise store, has led to promised change.
In a ,聽Karen Cole, of Shaftesbury, England, writes that she and her 7-year-old daughter, Maggie, went to Tesco鈥檚 Tower Park store and Maggie spotted a sign indicating that the toys present were 鈥渇un gifts for boys.鈥澛�
When Ms. Cole tweeted a photo of her daughter to the chain and to the 鈥淟et Toys Be Toys鈥� campaign, which aims to stop retailers from dividing toys by gender, the unexpected happened 鈥� after endorsements from the 鈥溾�� campaign, she heard back.
The store then promised to take down the sign from all stores, .听
The response from Tesco is the latest success for the 鈥淟et Toys Be Toys鈥� campaign, led by a group of British parents. In fall 2013, the campaign persuaded British Toys R Us stores to take out explicit references to gender in their stores.
In the U.S., similar toy campaigns have focused largely on products marketed to girls, including organizations such as the Brave Girls Alliance, A Mighty Girl, and Princess-Free Zone.
A Mighty Girl started a Change.org campaign encouraging Toys R Us stores to remove 鈥渂oy鈥� and 鈥済irl鈥� headings from their catalogs, among other demands. has attracted 4,058 supporters as of press time.听
And last year鈥檚 鈥淧rincess Machine鈥� video went viral. The video showed young girls who set up a Rube Goldberg-esque machine to roll balls around a family鈥檚 living room and swing buckets on strings, eventually pushing a button to turn off a television program showing three girls, dressed in pink, watching a tea party on television.听
When Maggie spotted the gender-biased Tesco sign, it reminded her mother of a conversation the family had the year prior, .
In 2013, Tesco initially defended marketing a chemistry set to boys, saying on Twitter that 鈥渢oy signage is currently based on research and how our customers tell us they like to shop in our stores,鈥� 聽Soon after, and reviewed how toys are labeled online.听
Cole and Maggie found a wave of support after Cole鈥檚 initial tweet. Users retweeted Maggie鈥檚 stern face about 10,475 times, 鈥渇avoriting鈥� the post more than 11,500 times.听
Signs and labels noting the gender for specific toys hurt children, Cole says, because 鈥渃hildren are being teased and bullied for not conforming to the perceived gender norms.鈥澛犅�
