12-Year-Old Girl's Letter To Dick's Sporting Goods About Gender Equality Is A Slam Dunk

12-Year-Old Girl's Letter To Dick's Sporting Goods About Gender Equality Is A Slam Dunk

Dick's Sporting Goods ought to know that a game like basketball is played by both men and women. The company, however, seemed to have missed that memo when it published its 2014 basketball catalogue, and an Arizona girl took notice.

McKenna Peterson, 12, plays and watches basketball. After seeing the sports equipment retailer's catalogue, she wrote a letter to Dick's about the dearth of female faces in the publication.

"There are NO girls in the catalog," she said in her missive. "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. It's hard enough for girls to break through in this sport as it is, without you guys excluding us from your catalog."

Peterson went on to say that she has shopped at Dick's for her sports equipment and shoes, but might not be a customer much longer.

"Maybe my dad will take me to some other store that supports girls to actually PLAY basketball and follow their dreams and not sit on the sidelines and watch the game," she wrote.

Peterson's father, Chris Peterson, a media professional who covers sports for Phoenix's NBC12 and AZCentral Sports, tweeted his daughter's letter Thursday.

The post wound up going viral, and the elder Peterson later shared a photo of his daughter thanking tweeps for the retweets.

Later on Thursday, he tweeted a screen grab of the email response he received from Dick's.

"Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns," the letter read. "We at Dick's Sporting Goods take pride in being the premiere destination for all true athletes and apologize if that was not accurately reflected in the latest basketball catalog. We have taken your comments to heart and are currently reviewing our catalog process so we can do a better job in the future."

Here's hoping.

H/T Jezebel

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