An 11-year-old girl has received an apology from the creators of the Beano after she called them out for for including “sexist” advertising in the comic.
The girl’s dad, scientist Adam Rutherford, tweeted a photo of a letter his daughter, Bea, wrote to the publication to share her opinion on their adverts.
She criticised one advert that offered readers the chance to win the “whole team of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ figures”, but the set was notably missing Gamora, the only female character.
“How do you sit at your desk publishing this happily humming away because nothing is wrong while people like me have to write letters of complaint to you?” she wrote.
Bea also slammed an advert to win gender-themed Christmas mystery boxes - the boys’ box was stereotypically blue with gaming products.
“What if a kid is a girl but loves gaming?” Bea wrote. “Oh sorry little girl, but you can’t have a Christmas mystery box because you don’t fit into these categories.”
Bea signed her letter off with “angry love from”.
Rutherford’s tweet soon had 300 retweets and gained support from celebrities including Caroline Criado Perez and Caitlin Moran (who called her a badass).
Other Twitter users sent in their messages of support to the 11-year-old.
Beano responded to the tweet on 20 November agreeing with what Rutherford’s daughter said in the letter.
“Thanks for flagging this to us,” they wrote. “We couldn’t agree more with Bea.
“This should not have been allowed to happen. We’re replying to Bea directly. Apologies to all our readers.”
Speaking to HuffPost UK, a spokesperson for the Beano said: “We’d like to apologise for running the ad Bea complained about, which promoted gender-based Christmas gift-boxes.
“Beano is equally popular amongst girls and boys and we value all our readers very highly.
“We’ve contacted Bea directly, answering her original email and are waiting to hear back from her.”
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