It’s a bit out of the norm for us to post consecutive stories about our children but this one should not be ignored. Our daughter, Maggie Harder took it upon herself to take on Amazon and have them remove (from their ginormous list of products) offensive T-shirts listed in their “humorous” category that shamelessly bully the depressed and mentally ill. Starting last summer, we would walk the dog past the mailbox in our neighborhood and post her letters to the retail giant. I was skeptical if she would get any response because who is going to listen to one 14 year old girl?
Well it turns out, it only takes one to start a change! (I think they should put a few into the white house next term)
Maggie emailed the CBC’s “Go Public” after listening to a story they did on The National, targeting Amazon for selling Nazi branded merchandise. Maggie thought that her story could hopefully add more fuel to the fire and get Amazon to grow a conscience about what types of products they choose to sell.
What followed was huge media and public support and only a few days after the story broke mostly all of the items have been taken down worldwide. In addition to this news story breaking out all over the country, there is also a growing petition on Change.org https://www.change.org/p/amazon-com-remove-suicide-shirts-from-amazon/u/14884278 that last time I checked was over the 50,000 mark. See more information at the bottom on this post.
These are very different times we live in, light years from when I was 14. I don’t think social conscience was even a concept in my vocabulary. Maggie was deeply compelled to fight against stigma towards mental illness. In the fall she researched and created her own web site Liberate Minds
We are all so very proud and we think this will be the first of many more accomplishments to come for our beautiful Maggie Harder.
~Brian and Trudie
The Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/01/07/calgary-teen-asks-amazon-to-stop-selling-suicide-t-shirts.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/01/08/amazon-apologizes-for-suicide-t-shirts-but-still-offers-them-for-sale.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/01/09/amazon-pulls-suicide-t-shirts-from-website.html
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https://www.change.org/p/amazon-com-remove-suicide-shirts-from-amazon/u/14884278
CBC News Calgary:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-teen-amazon-mental-illness-shirts-1.3391187
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/amazon-suicide-shift-maggie-harder-calgary-1.3396742
The Mighty:
http://themighty.com/2016/01/advocates-boycott-amazon-over-dangerous-suicide-themed-shirts/
The Calgary Sun:
http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/01/10/after-months-of-contacting-amazon-over-shirts-that-make-light-of-suicide-calgary-teen-finally-gets-response
http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/01/09/amazon-removes-suicide-shirts-after-canadian-online-petition-gains-traction