Letter to Lego which made me cry, sent via their website

Dear Lego

I have been playing with Lego since approximately 1980. I have three children, and their other parent has been playing with Lego since approximately 1976. The children inherited our Lego, and we enthusiastically bought new sets for them - Duplo buckets, mixed bricks, City sets, minifigs in packets. Visiting LegoLand is an enormous treat, slightly more exciting than going to the moon in real life.

But the increasingly aggressive sidelining of girls from the mainstream of Lego customers means that I have, in spite of the heartwrenching regret it causes me, decided not to buy any new Lego products until girls are again considered as real customers and included in the huge majority of Lego products and magazines and Club literature.

Girls are people too, and boys and girls both need to know that this is true.

As soon as Lego shows it thinks that I and my children are real people, I will once again buy, with enthusiasm, from the vast, gender-neutral, enthralling selection of building toys you have to offer. For my children.

And my sisters' children.

And our friends' children.

And occasionally for ourselves, because there's no reason people over 30 shouldn't have any fun.

Yours, as part of the 51% of the global population which is female,

Ailbhe Leamy