Only in America: Easy-Bake equality
A teen petitions for a gender-neutral Easy-Bake oven — and more in our collection of strange revelations about the nation


After 13-year-old McKenna Pope's Change.org petition garnered more than 40,000 signatures, toy-maker Hasbro has agreed to release a gender-neutral version of its classic Easy-Bake Oven and include boys in its ads. McKenna says she was inspired to start the campaign after discovering that the Easy-Bake Oven she wanted give her 4-year-old brother for Christmas only came in pink and purple. "[Hasbro] really met most or even all of what I wanted to do, they really amazed me," she tells the AP.
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Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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