EDMONTON – Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack has reached out to 12-year-old McKenna Peterson, who made headlines across the continent after calling out the American sports retailer for the content of its recent basketball catalogue.
“I was looking through it and three pages in, I was like, ‘Why isn’t there any girls in here?'” said the Edmonton-born girl, whose family moved to Phoenix from Regina two years ago.
Her dad, Chris Peterson, suggested she write a letter to the company. “She said: ‘I was just thinking that.’
“She banged out this letter in about half an hour and I was going to give her a couple suggestions and she said, ‘Shut up, Daddy, I got this.'”
McKenna didn’t hold back in her letter.
“There are NO girls in the catalog!” she wrote before quickly correcting herself. “Oh, wait, sorry. There IS a girl in the catalog on page 6. SITTING in the STANDS.”
“Women are only mentioned once in the catalog on page 5 for some shoes. And there are cheerleaders on some coupons.”
The Grade 7 student, who’s a huge fan of the Phoenix Mercury Women’s Basketball team, played on an all-girls team when she lived in Regina. In Phoenix, she has to play with the boys — something she says makes her a stronger player.
McKenna hopes to one day play basketball professionally; but she feels having her gender under-represented in a sports catalogue isn’t doing young female athletes any favours.
“It’s hard enough for girls to break through in this sport as it is, without you guys excluding us from your catalog,” she wrote.
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Her parents were “in awe” when McKenna read them her letter, which her proud dad shared with his Twitter followers on Thursday.
He never expected the thousands of retweets and responses that followed.
“I thought a couple of my friends would say ‘Hey, nice job.’ I can’t believe she’s getting coverage from around the world on this.
“Most of it is ‘Girl power,’ ‘Way to go McKenna,’ ‘Stand up for girls in basketball,’ ‘Way to stand up for your rights.’ It’s just been amazing. ‘McKenna for President.’
“A lot of parents are saying, ‘I read this to my daughter.’ Some people are saying, ‘I’m going to read this to my sons… I’m showing this to my basketball team.'”
The company also took notice.
McKenna’s dad later tweeted: “McKenna & I spoke to @DICKS today. They thanked her for the letter & said her words have led them to reevaluate their next catalog.”
The family then received a personal apology from the CEO himself, who wrote:
“I’m sorry, we cleared messed up and I can personally guarantee that next year’s catalog will prominently feature female athletes, as it should have this year.”
In the meantime, McKenna is reveling in her newfound fame and happy her message for gender equality is reaching the masses.
“I just think that everybody should follow their dreams no matter if they’re a girl or a boy,” she said.
“What I’m just saying is: go out and do whatever you want. Just nothing that’s against the law.”
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