11-year-old Rowan Hansen's frustration with the lack of female superheroes led her to write a letter to DC Comics, telling them: "I love your comics, but I would love them a lot more if there were more girls... Please do something about this. Girls read comics, too, and they care." After her letter went viral online this month, DC Comics sent the girl from Champaign, Illinois a note that they are "working hard to create more superhero fun for girls," along with a very special gift -- a drawing of Rowan as her own superhero.
In her letter, Rowan highlighted examples of gender inequality in the comic world: "There are Superman and Batman movies, but not a Wonder Woman one. You have a Flash TV show but not a Wonder Woman one. Marvel comics made a movie about a talking tree and raccoon awesome, but you haven't made a movie with Wonder Woman." She also observed how female characters are not well-represented in merchandise, noting that "I would really like a Hawkgirl, or Catwoman, or the girls of the Young Justice TV show action figures please."
During a Today Show interview, she added an observation about costume choice, asking “If Batman gets to wear armor, then why doesn't Wonder Woman get to wear armor? And I know that she's kind of invulnerable, but it would still be nicer if she didn't wear a bathing suit all the time.”
While Rowan was thrilled to receive the superhero drawing from DC and appreciative of the gesture, she remains focused on the larger goal: "It was really, really cool, ’cause they're so big and important people. But I thought 'I don't want people to think, "Oh, yeah, okay, they responded to her. Now it's over.’ I want people to keep trying to make this happen, ’cause it's really important to me.”
Kudos to Rowan for taking a stand for greater gender equality in comics! To read her full letter on Today, visit http://on.today.com/1CTA7Vh
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