At a time where most other kids her age would be worried about their Beanie Babies collection, 12-year-old Meghan was calling out a major soap company. In case you missed it, an old 1993 clip surfaced in 2017 of Meghan as a child being interviewed on the cable show Nick News. And it proves that the Duchess of Sussex has been all about equal rights for people and calling out behavior that’s harmful since she was a pre-teen. According to the clip, Meghan had a social study assignment in elementary school where she and her classmates watched commercials. The purpose of the exercise was to assess the advertising messages, and one of them left the pre-teen “furious.” Watching a commercial for Ivory Dishwashing Liquid, owned by Procter & Gamble, comments made by the boys in her class prompted Meghan to write a letter to the company. “In the commercial, they said women are battling grease, meaning only women do dishes,” the young Meghan explained in the video clip. “When I heard this, the boys in my class started saying, ‘Yeah, that’s where women belong…in the kitchen.’” She continued, “It makes me feel like [boys are] going to grow up thinking that girls are less than them … like, boys are better than girls.” In the letter she wrote, Meghan asked the company to change the language to “people all over America” and do away with “women all over America.” And the letter worked because the company did make the change. Meghan is such a role model, and this is a powerful moment we can share with our kids. If something doesn’t sit the right way, even if it’s a major company and you’re just a kid, speaking up is never wrong.
