While tucking in to a bowl of Nutri-Grain one morning, eight-year-old Daliah Lee noticed something concerning: the box from which her favourite cereal came from only ever featured boys doing ‘awesome things’ on the back.
Frustrated by the lack of female representation on the cereal’s packaging, the Year Two student from Canberra was inspired to take action – penning a letter to billion-dollar company, Kellogg’s.
“I noticed that on the back of the box of Nutri-Grain, there are only pictures of boys doing something awesome,” the letter read.
“Why can’t girls be on the back?” she wrote.
She went on to express that it “wasn’t fair” because “girls can do something awesome too”, before asking the company to “please fix it”.
As reported by Daily Mail Australia, Kellogg's sent a generic letter in response, thanking her for her feedback and promising to pass it on.
This only further sparked Daliah's passion to fight for change.
With the help of her mother, the pint-sized activist set up an online petition, urging support for her fight to ensure women gained equal representation as men via the cereal brand's marketing.
"We are both humans and we are the same," her change.org page read.
"They can change it by taking pictures of amazing things that women and men are both doing for the world."
Now, her resistance to backing down has ensured her voice has been heard, with the company promising to update their packaging next year to include images of males and females.
"Hearing Daliah's passion and, as a company that values diversity and inclusion, we've decided that we will update the back-of-pack imagery with images of both females and males," the company said in a statement.
"This will be rolled out in 2019, so that we can continue to inspire all Aussies no matter their gender."
Her mother, Annabelle Lee told Daily Mail Australia that Daliah was thrilled to have made a difference.
"Daliah can be really passionate when she believes in something and she really didn't want it to end (with Kellogg's initial response)."
On hearing the news that Kellogg's had responded, Daliah "screamed and jumped around like it was the best day of her life", her mother said.
"She was almost in shock that her concerns had been heard and addressed. Ever since then she has been doing a little dance of excitement whenever she remembers," Mrs Lee said.
Still - until Daliah has seen the changed rolled out, she's sworn off Nutri-Grain in commitment to her cause.
"She believes she can change the world, and this is her first step," Mrs Lee said of her passionate daughter.
What's next for Daliah? She has aspirations to be Prime Minister, of course.
Top Comments
Daliah thankyou for putting your time & effort into something so relevant! Awesome work 😁
It’s a cereal box for Christ’s sake. All the issues in the world and some attention grabbing mother wants to virtue signal via her daughter. Some people need to look at their life when they are complaining about what’s on a damn cereal box. “Sworn off nutrigrain in commitment to the cause” 😂
I think I’ll start feeding it to my daughter just to make up the sales.
Raising a generation of snowflakes in a harsh world.
Or, raising a generation of kids who are willing to speak up when they see unfairness. You seem very upset by something as unimportant as a “damn cereal box”. If it’s not that big a deal, then why not just have equal representation, and make everyone happy?
James, I assume you’re a man? Perhaps you have not experienced what it’s like to find something you love only to discover that there are only pictures of girls doing it. Unless you love ballet or make up or princesses. If you happened to love doing awesome outdoor activities and a cereal box only had pictures of girls doing it, that might make you feel left out - or even discouraged.
True, it’s only a cereal box. The broader issue is that Kelloggs assumes they are only targeting a market of young men with their product and are reinforcing stereotypes at the same time.