I'm McKenna Pope. I'm 14 years old, and when I was 13, I convinced one of the largest toy companies, toymakers, in the world, Hasbro, to change the way that they marketed one of their most best-selling products.
Ja sam Mekena Poup. Imam 14 godina, kada sam imala 13, ubedila sam jednu od najvećih kompanija za pravljenje igračaka, na svetu, Hasbro, da promeni način na koji reklamra jedan od njihovih najprodavanijih proizvoda.
So allow me to tell you about it. So I have a brother, Gavin. When this whole shebang happened, he was four. He loved to cook. He was always getting ingredients out of the fridge and mixing them into these, needless to say, uneatable concoctions, or making invisible macaroni and cheese. He wanted to be a chef really badly. And so what better gift for a kid who wanted to be a chef than an Easy-Bake Oven. Right? I mean, we all had those when we were little. And he wanted one so badly.
Ispričaću vam o tome. Imam brata, Gevina. Kada se sve izdešavalo, on je imao 4 godine. I voleo je da kuva. On bi uvek uzimao sastojke iz frižidera i mućkao ih u, nepotrebno je i reći, nejestive mešavine, ili pravio nevidljive makarone sa sirom. Želeo je, zaista, da bude kuvar. I koji je bolji pokon za dete koje je želelo da bude kuvar od rerne za lako pečenje. Zar ne? Svi smo ih imali kada smo bili mali. I on je želeo jednu, veoma.
But then he started to realize something. In the commercials, and on the boxes for the Easy-Bake Ovens, Hasbro marketed them specifically to girls. And the way that they did this was they would only feature girls on the boxes or in the commercials, and there would be flowery prints all over the ovens and it would be in bright pink and purple, very gender-specific colors to females, right? So it kind of was sending a message that only girls are supposed to cook; boys aren't. And this discouraged my brother a lot. He thought that he wasn't supposed to want to be a chef, because that was something that girls did. Girls cooked; boys didn't, or so was the message that Hasbro was sending.
Ali je uvideo nešto. U reklamama i na kutijama rerni za lako pečenje, Hasbro je tržište razvio specijalno za devojčice. I način na koji su to uradili je tako što su isticali devojčice na kutijama ili u reklamama, i po celoj rerni bi bile cvetne šare u svetlo roze i ljubičastoj boji, koje su i specifične boje za ženski rod, zar ne? Tako da, na neki način, to je slalo poruku da bi samo devojčice trebalo da kuvaju; dečaci ne. I to je veoma obeshrabrilo mog brata. Mislio je da on uopšte i ne treba da postane kuvar, jer to samo devojčice rade. Devojčice kuvaju - dečaci ne, ili je takva bila poruka koju je Hasbro poslao.
And this got me thinking, God, I wish there was a way that I could change this, that could I have my voice heard by Hasbro so I could ask them and tell them what they were doing wrong and ask them to change it. And that got me thinking about a website that I had learned about a few months prior called Change.org. Change.org is an online petition-sharing platform where you can create a petition and share it across all of these social media networks, through Facebook, through Twitter, through YouTube, through Reddit, through Tumblr, through whatever you can think of. And so I created a petition along with the YouTube video that I added to the petition basically asking Hasbro to change the way that they marketed it, in featuring boys in the commercials, on the boxes, and most of all creating them in less gender-specific colors.
I uhvatila sam sebe kako razmišljam: bože, volela bih da postoji način da promenim ovo, da moj glas može dopreti do Hasbroa da bih mogla da im kažem šta su radili pogrešno i da ih zamollim da to promene. I zbog toga sam počela da razmišljam o sajtu za koji sam saznala nekoliko meseci ranije, Change.org. Change.org je platforma gde možete napraviti peticiju i podeliti je preko svih društvenih mreža, Fejsbuka, Tvitera, preko Jutjuba, Redita, Tambelra, preko bilo čega što vam padne na pamet. I tako sam ja napravila peticiju zajedno sa Jutjub videom, koji sam dodala peticiji, u suštini, tražeći da Hasbro promeni način reklamiranja, sa dečacima u reklamama, na kutijama, i povrh svega, da ih prave u bojama koje su manje karakteristične za određeni rod.
So this petition started to take off -- humongously fast, you have no idea. I was getting interviewed by all these national news outlets and press outlets, and it was amazing. In three weeks, maybe three and a half, I had 46,000 signatures on this petition.
I ova peticija je počela da se širi nemoguće brzo, ne možete ni da zamislite koliko. Intervjuisale su me sve te nacionalne televizijske kuće, i novine, i bilo je neverovatno. Za tri nedelje, možda tri i po, prikupila sam 46,000 potpisa za ovu peticiju.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Thank you.
Hvala.
So, needless to say, it was crazy. Eventually, Hasbro themselves invited me to their headquarters so they could go and unveil their new Easy-Bake Oven product to me in black, silver and blue. It was literally one of the best moments of my life. It was like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." That thing was amazing.
Nepotrebno je reći, bilo je ludo. Najzad, pozvana sam i u sedište Hasbroa da bi mogli da mi pokažu svoj novi proizvod u crnoj, srebrnoj i plavoj. Bio je to, bukvalno, jedan od najboljih trenutaka mog života. Bilo je kao Vili Vonka i Fabrika čokolade. Ta stvar je odlična.
What I didn't realize at the time, however, was that I had become an activist, I could change something, that even as a kid, or maybe even especially as a kid, my voice mattered, and your voice matters too. I want to let you know it's not going to be easy, and it wasn't easy for me, because I faced a lot of obstacles. People online, and sometimes even in real life, were disrespectful to me and my family, and talked about how the whole thing was a waste of time, and it really discouraged me. And actually, I have some examples, because what's better revenge than displaying their idiocy? So, let's see. From user name Liquidsore29 -- interesting user names we have here— "Disgusting liberal moms making their sons gay." Liquidsore29, really? Really? Okay. How about from Whiteboy77AGS: "People always need something to (female dog) about." From Jeffrey Gutierrez: "OMG, shut up. You just want money and attention."
Ono što tada nisam shvatila, jeste da sam postala aktivista, promenila sam nešto, čak i kao dete ili možda baš kao dete, moj glas je bio važan, i vaš glas je isto tako važan. I želim da vam kažem da neće biti lako, nije ni meni bilo lako. Susrela sam se sa mnogim preprekama. Ljudi sa mreže, a ponekad i iz stvarnog života su bili neučtivi prema mojoj porodici i meni, i pričali o tome kao o velikom gubljenju vremena, to me je jako obeshrabrilo. I u stvari, imam nekoliko primera, jer nema bolje osvete od izlaganja njihovog idiotizma? Hajde da vidimo. Neko sa korisničkim imenom "Liquidsore29", interesantna imena imamo ovde, citiram: "Odvratne slobodoumne mame, prave od svojih sinova homoseksualce." Liquidsore29, stvarno? Ali, stvarno?! Ok. Ili na primer "Whiteboy77AGS": "Ljudi uvek imaju potrebu da po nečemu (vršenje nužde)." Dzefri Gutierez: "O, bože, umukni! Samo želiš novac i pažnju!"
So it was comments like these that really discouraged me from wanting to make change in the future because I thought, people don't care, people think it's a waste of time, and people are going to be disrespectful to me and my family. It hurt me, and it made me think, what's the point of making change in the future?
Ovakvi komentari su me zaista obeshrabrili u pravljenju promena u budućnosti, jer sam mislila da ljudima nije ni bitno, jer misle da je to gubljenje vremena, i da će ljudi biti drski prema meni i mojoj porodici. To me je povredilo i nateralo da pomislim, koja je svrha pravljenja nekih budućih promena?
But then I started to realize something. Haters gonna hate. Come on, say it with me. One, two, three: Haters gonna hate. So let your haters hate, you know what, and make your change, because I know you can. I look out into this crowd, and I see 400 people who came out because they wanted to know how they could make a change, and I know that you can, and all of you watching at home can too because you have so much that you can do and that you believe in, and you can trade it across all these social media, through Facebook, through Twitter, through YouTube, through Reddit, through Tumblr, through whatever else you can think of. And you can make that change. You can take what you believe in and turn it into a cause and change it. And that spark that you've been hearing about all day today, you can use that spark that you have within you and turn it into a fire.
Ali tada sam nešto ukapirala. Hejteri će mrzeti. Hajde, ponovite. Jedan, dva, tri: hejteri će mrzeti. Tako da, pustite hejtere da mrze, znate šta, i napravite svoju promenu, jer sam sigurna da vi to možete. U ovoj publici, vidim 400 ljudi koji su došli, jer su želeli da saznaju kako mogu da naprave promenu. Ja znam da vi to možete, i svi koji nas prate od kuće to mogu, jer ima puno toga što vi možete da uradite i u šta verujete, i možete sve to podeliti preko svih ovih društvenih mreža, preko Fejsbuka, Tvitera, Jutjuba, Redita, Tamblera, i preko čega još možete da se setite. I možete napraviti promenu. Uzmite to u šta verujete, pretvorite u cilj i promenite. I ta iskra o kojoj ste slušali danas, možete iskoristiti tu iskru koju imate u sebi da biste je pretvorili u vatru.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)