Clothes maketh the (wo)man?

Here are pictures of Riley in pink looking and being Riley.  And there are pictures of Riley not in pink looking and being Riley.  They’re clothes, not a description of her preferences and personality.  Their function is not dependent on her gender!

We’re getting to the stage where things outside of our little family unit will influence Riley.  One day soon she’ll stop doing something that she loves because of a gender stereotype.  I don’t want her to stop wanting the rocket socks because they’re for boys or to start fishing for compliments on her appearance because that is all she is hearing (rather than praise for her courage, problem solving abilities etc) and so associates appearance with self worth.  There are no girl or boy colors or activities – there are just kids!

I need to take action!

Who’s with me?

And what can we do?

I want to start local but think the big chain stores ain’t a great place to start.  So how do I bring up with my local kids clothing store and op shops about sorting clothes by size and color versus gender? The new configuration won’t stop you from buying pink or blue, and you might even buy something you may not have seen within the default sorting.  Its not the boys collection or the girls spring/summer release – its just clothes!!  How do I strike up that conversation and not look like a crazed hippy mom?  Hit me up with all the suggestions!!  How do we make this a movement, inspire and educate?  How do we get an avalanche of support so there is pressure to change?  I want the coles plastic bag backflip scale!!  And what’s a good hashtag?

This will be a good primer activity before tackling school uniforms in a couple of years…