ABOUT THE SPEAKER
McKenna Pope - Teen activist
When McKenna Pope was 13 she petitioned Hasbro to market its Easy-Bake Oven to boys as well as girls, and to make it available in gender-neutral colors. It worked.

Why you should listen

If anyone's still worried about today's teenagers melting their brains on the Internet, there's at least one who stands out against the crowd: teen activist McKenna Pope. In 2012 Pope's four-year-old brother, who had a passion for cooking, was beyond excited to ask for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. But, confused by the pink and purple colors and the television ads that only featured girls using the toy, he became discouraged.

Pope, thirteen at the time, was indignant that her brother should think any less of himself as a boy who liked to cook. Naturally Pope turned to the Internet. She posted a video and written petition urging the CEO of Hasbro to change its marketing and packaging around the Easy-Bake Oven to make it appealing to boys as well as girls. Pope could hardly anticipate what came next: She received 45,000 signatures and a call from Hasbro, inviting her to their headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to show her their new unisex designs.

More profile about the speaker
McKenna Pope | Speaker | TED.com
TEDYouth 2013

McKenna Pope: Want to be an activist? Start with your toys

McKenna Pope: Queren ser activistas? Comecen cos seus xoguetes

Filmed:
1,022,732 views

Ao irmán pequeno de McKenna Pope encantáballe cociñar, mais non lle gustaba empregar unha cociniña de xoguete que era para nenas. Así que aos 13 anos, Pope iniciou unha petición en liña para a empresa de xoguetes estadounidense Hasbro co fin de cambiar as cores rosa e violeta do clásico xoguete e incluir aos nenos na publicidade de TV. Nunha charla alentadora, Pope toma a causa dos xoguetes non sexistas e fai unha chamada vehemente á acción a tódolos nenos que se sinten impotentes.
- Teen activist
When McKenna Pope was 13 she petitioned Hasbro to market its Easy-Bake Oven to boys as well as girls, and to make it available in gender-neutral colors. It worked. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I'm McKenna Pope. I'm 14 years old,
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Son McKenna Pope e teño 14 anos.
00:15
and when I was 13, I convinced
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Cando tiña 13, convencín a
00:17
one of the largest toy companies,
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un dos maiores fabricantes de xoguetes
00:18
toymakers, in the world, Hasbro,
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do mundo, Hasbro,
00:21
to change the way that they marketed
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de cambiar a forma na que vendían
00:23
one of their most best-selling products.
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un dos seus produtos máis populares.
00:25
So allow me to tell you about it.
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Falareilles sobre isto.
00:26
So I have a brother, Gavin.
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Teño un irmán, Gavin.
00:28
When this whole shebang happened, he was four.
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Cando sucedeu todo isto el tiña 4 anos.
00:30
He loved to cook.
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Encantáballe cociñar.
00:32
He was always getting ingredients out of the fridge
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Sempre sacaba ingredientes da neveira
00:34
and mixing them into these, needless to say,
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e mesturábaos, creando beberaxes intragables,
00:36
uneatable concoctions,
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non fai falta dicilo,
00:38
or making invisible macaroni and cheese.
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ou facendo fideos con queixo invisibles.
00:41
He wanted to be a chef really badly.
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Morría por converterse en chef de cociña.
00:44
And so what better gift for a kid
who wanted to be a chef
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E entón, que mellor agasallo para un rapaz que quería ser chef
00:47
than an Easy-Bake Oven. Right?
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que una cociniña de xoguete, ¿non é?
00:49
I mean, we all had those when we were little.
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É dicir, todas tiñamos desas cando eramos pequenas.
00:51
And he wanted one so badly.
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E el morría coas ganas de ter unha.
00:53
But then he started to realize something.
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Pero logo comezou a decatarse de algo.
00:56
In the commercials, and on the
boxes for the Easy-Bake Ovens,
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Nos anuncios e nas caixas das cociniñas
01:00
Hasbro marketed them specifically to girls.
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Hasbro comercializábaas
especificamente para nenas.
01:03
And the way that they did this
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E facíano
01:04
was they would only feature girls
on the boxes or in the commercials,
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amosando só imaxes de nenas nas caixas
ou nos anuncios.
01:07
and there would be flowery prints all over the ovens
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e había estampados floreados nas cociniñas
01:10
and it would be in bright pink and purple,
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en rosa brillante e violeta,
01:13
very gender-specific colors to females, right?
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cores moi asociados ao xénero femenino, ¿non si?
01:16
So it kind of was sending a message
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Con isto transmitían unha mensaxe
01:19
that only girls are supposed to cook; boys aren't.
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que só as mozas deberían cociñar, non os nenos.
01:22
And this discouraged my brother a lot.
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E isto desanimaba moito a meu irmán.
01:23
He thought that he wasn't
supposed to want to be a chef,
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Pensaba que non debía querer facerse chef,
01:27
because that was something that girls did.
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porque iso era algo para nenas.
01:29
Girls cooked; boys didn't,
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As mozas cociñaban, os mozos non,
01:30
or so was the message that Hasbro was sending.
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ou polo menos esa era a mensaxe que Hasbro transmitía.
01:33
And this got me thinking,
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E isto fíxome cavilar
01:35
God, I wish there was a way that I could change this,
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que ogallá existira unha maneira de cambiar isto
01:37
that could I have my voice heard by Hasbro
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¿Podería facer que Hasbro escoitara a miña voz
01:40
so I could ask them and tell them
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para dicirlles
01:42
what they were doing wrong
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o que facían mal
01:43
and ask them to change it.
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e pedirlles que o cambien?
01:44
And that got me thinking about a website
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E iso fíxome pensar nun sitio web
01:46
that I had learned about a few months prior
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que coñecera uns meses atrás
01:48
called Change.org.
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chamado Change.org.
01:49
Change.org is an online petition-sharing platform
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Change.org é unha plataforma
de intercambio de peticións
01:53
where you can create a petition and share it
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onde se pode crear unha petición e compartila
01:55
across all of these social media networks,
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a través de tódalas redes sociais,
01:57
through Facebook, through Twitter,
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a través de Facebook, de Twitter,
01:59
through YouTube, through Reddit, through Tumblr,
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de YouTube, de Reddit, de Tumblr,
02:00
through whatever you can think of.
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a través do que se nos poda ocorrer.
02:02
And so I created a petition
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Así que creei unha petición
02:04
along with the YouTube video
that I added to the petition
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e agregueille un vídeo de YouTube
02:07
basically asking Hasbro
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basicamente pidíndolle a Hasbro
02:09
to change the way that they marketed it,
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que cambie a forma na que comercializaba as cociniñas
02:11
in featuring boys in the commercials, on the boxes,
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amosando nenos nos anuncios, nas caixas
02:14
and most of all creating them
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e sobre todo empregando
02:16
in less gender-specific colors.
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cores menos femeninas.
02:19
So this petition started to take off --
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Así que esta petición comezou a despegar
02:23
humongously fast, you have no idea.
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moi rápido, non teñen nin idea.
02:26
I was getting interviewed by
all these national news outlets
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Entrevistáronme en todos estes
medios de comunicación nacionais
02:29
and press outlets, and it was amazing.
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e prensa, e foi incrible.
02:33
In three weeks, maybe three and a half,
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En tres semanas, quizais tres e media,
02:35
I had 46,000 signatures on this petition.
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tiña 46 000 firmas nesta petición.
02:40
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
02:42
Thank you.
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Gracias.
02:44
So, needless to say, it was crazy.
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Así que, non fai falta dicilo, foi unha loucura.
02:47
Eventually, Hasbro themselves
invited me to their headquarters
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Finalmente, Hasbro invitoume á súa sé
02:51
so they could go and unveil
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para amosarme
02:53
their new Easy-Bake Oven product to me
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a súa nova cociniña
02:55
in black, silver and blue.
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en negro, plata e azul.
02:57
It was literally one of the best moments of my life.
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Literalmente foi un
dos mellores momentos da miña vida.
03:00
It was like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
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Era como chocolate>.
03:02
That thing was amazing.
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Foi incrible.
03:04
What I didn't realize at the time, however,
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Do que non me din conta no momento, porén
03:06
was that I had become an activist,
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era que me convertera nunha activista,
03:08
I could change something,
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eu podía cambiar algo,
03:09
that even as a kid, or maybe
even especially as a kid,
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aínda sendo unha nena, ou tal vez
precisamente por ser unha nena,
03:12
my voice mattered, and your voice matters too.
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a miña voz importaba, e as súas voces tamén importan
moito.
03:15
I want to let you know it's not going to be easy,
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Quero que saiban que non será sinxelo,
03:17
and it wasn't easy for me,
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e non foi sinxelo para min,
03:18
because I faced a lot of obstacles.
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porque me enfrontei a un montón de obstáculos.
03:21
People online, and sometimes even in real life,
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Xente en liña e ás veces tamén na vida real
03:24
were disrespectful to me and my family,
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irrespetuosos comigo e a miña familia,
03:27
and talked about how the whole
thing was a waste of time,
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e dicían que todo isto era unha perda de tempo,
03:30
and it really discouraged me.
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e iso desanimoume de veras.
03:31
And actually, I have some examples,
because what's better revenge
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E, de feito, teño algúns exemplos,
porque, que mellor vinganza
03:35
than displaying their idiocy?
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que amosar a súa estupidez?
03:37
So, let's see.
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Así que vexamos.
03:39
From user name Liquidsore29 --
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Do usuario Liquidstore29.
03:42
interesting user names we have here—
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Temos nomes de usuario interesantes por aquí.
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"Disgusting liberal moms making their sons gay."
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seus fillos en homosexuais>.
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Liquidsore29, really? Really? Okay.
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¿Liquidstore29, non?¿ Si? Ben.
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How about from Whiteboy77AGS:
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¿E que tal Whiteboy77AGS?
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"People always need something
to (female dog) about."
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
McKenna Pope - Teen activist
When McKenna Pope was 13 she petitioned Hasbro to market its Easy-Bake Oven to boys as well as girls, and to make it available in gender-neutral colors. It worked.

Why you should listen

If anyone's still worried about today's teenagers melting their brains on the Internet, there's at least one who stands out against the crowd: teen activist McKenna Pope. In 2012 Pope's four-year-old brother, who had a passion for cooking, was beyond excited to ask for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. But, confused by the pink and purple colors and the television ads that only featured girls using the toy, he became discouraged.

Pope, thirteen at the time, was indignant that her brother should think any less of himself as a boy who liked to cook. Naturally Pope turned to the Internet. She posted a video and written petition urging the CEO of Hasbro to change its marketing and packaging around the Easy-Bake Oven to make it appealing to boys as well as girls. Pope could hardly anticipate what came next: She received 45,000 signatures and a call from Hasbro, inviting her to their headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to show her their new unisex designs.

More profile about the speaker
McKenna Pope | Speaker | TED.com