Rowan Hansen: 11-Year-Old Girl Writes Letter To DC Comics Requesting More Female Superheroes
Rowan Hansen, an 11-year-old girl from Champaign, Illinois, is a superhero fanatic. She has loved reading about superheroes since she was a young girl but always wondered why there were no women superheroes.
Rowan decided that a change needed to be made and wrote a letter to DC Comics requesting more female character be added to their comics.
Here is the transcript from Rowan’s letter.
“Dear DC Comics,
My name is Rowan and I am 11-years-old. I love superheroes and have been reading comics and watching superhero cartoons and movies since I was very young. I’m a girl, and I’m upset because their aren’t very many girl superheroes or movies and comics from DC.
For my birthday, I got some of your Justice League Chibis. I noticed in the little pamphlet that there are only two girl chibis, and 10 boys. Also, the background for the girl figures was all pink and purple.
I remember watching Justice League cartoons when I was really young with my dad. 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 a raccoon awesome, but you haven’t made a movie with Wonder Woman.
I would really like a Hawgirl, or Catowman, or the girls of the Young Justice TV show action figures please. I love your comics, but I would love them a whole lot more if there were more girls.
I asked a lot of the people I know whether they watched movies or read books or comics where girls were the main characters, they all said yes.
Please do something about this, girls read comic books too and they care.
Sincerely,
Rowan”
Jim Hansen and Renée Trilling, Rowan’s parents, are English professors at the University of Illinois and posted Rowan’s letter online. However, it didn’t go viral until their friend, a journalist, posted it on his website.
11-year-old girl demands more female superheroes: See how DC Comics responded http://t.co/cTGGex9XzO pic.twitter.com/gLPPj7EiXh
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 20, 2015
Jim and Renée said Rowan’s questions were thought provoking and brought up the topics of feminism in today’s society.
“You go to the store and they don’t have a Hawk Girl T-shirt, [but] they have Superman everywhere and Batman everywhere,” Renée said. “I don’t think it diminished her enjoyment of the stories or the characters at all. But it made her feel like she couldn’t quite participate in the way that she wanted to.”
“[Rowan would ask], ‘Why does Wonder Woman always have to be caught by Superman? Why doesn’t Wonder Woman ever catch Superman?'” Jim said. “I was like, ‘These are good questions.'”
Once Rowan’s letter went viral, it immediately caught the attention of DC Comics, which issued a response to the brave young girl, according to People Magazine.
“Yes Rowan, girls read comics too! Wonder Woman movie & Supergirl TV both in the works, with more exciting girl power announcements soon!” they tweeted. “Thanks Rowan. We agree, we’re working hard to create more superhero fun for girls!”
Rowan was thrilled to receive a response from DC, and spoke to Today about her reaction.
“I was just, like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe this. 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.”
What do you think about Rowan’s letter? Leave your comments below.
[Photo via Twitter/DC Comics]
