Girl writes letter to Dick's Sporting Goods criticizing them, store responds
One athletic 12-year-old girl in Arizona was really let down when she opened the latest Dick's Sporting Goods basketball catalog only to find not a single girl in it. McKenna Peterson decided to let the sporting goods store know.
Peterson wrote Dick's a letter saying, in part: "I am writing about the matter that there are no girls in the catalog. ... Oh, wait, sorry. There IS a girl in the catalog on page 6. SITTING in the STANDS. ... It's hard enough for girls to break through in this sport as it is, without you guys excluding us from your catalog."
McKenna Peterson tells KPNX, "Girls should keep in their mind: 'I can do anything. I can be a famous basketball player. I can be star reporter. I can be anything.'"
Peterson's dad, Chris, a photojournalist for Arizona's KPNX, tweeted the letter and said, "My 12yr old basketball loving daughter got the latest @DICKS catalog & had a big problem with it." As of Monday, that tweet had more than 4,700 retweets and more than 4,400 favorites.
NBC notes McKenna has not only been playing basketball since first grade, but she's also been a huge WNBA fan. McKenna's family has season tickets to the Phoenix Mercury, the WNBA defending champions.
Shortly after the letter started making its rounds on the Internet, McKenna received a response from the company via phone, email and Twitter. The letter even grabbed the attention of Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack.
He responded to McKenna about two days later with a letter posted on Twitter, "I'm sorry, we clearly messed up and I can personally guarantee that next year's basketball catalog will prominently feature female athletes, as it should have this year." He also offered to meet with McKenna when he visits the Arizona stores soon.
The catalog only comes out once a year, so Dick's has until 2015 to figure out what changes it might make.
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