Lead With Love

This post was developed in collaboration with P&G as part of their Love Over Bias campaign. 

The last couple of summers, my daughter Zoe elected to sign up for a baseball camp organized by our local World Series champion major league baseball team. This particular team, like lots of MLB teams, are heroes to so many children and adults, and so when the opportunity came up to participate, both my oldest son and daughter wanted to play.

Zoe played on an all-girls softball team for a few seasons now, and she loves it. She has also grown up watching her brother play baseball and her parents are avid fans, so the love for the game has been instilled in her at an early age. So, when she signed up, it didn’t matter to her that it would be mostly boys playing-she’s used to being around boys, and she knows that the game of professional baseball is all men. That did not deter her. She is strong and fearless, but when the boys began to “boo” her from the dugout while she was at bat, she came home upset and discouraged. Gender bias, as subtle as it can be, is woven throughout the fabric of our society and it starts with us as parents to inform and make the difference with our children.

On November 1 P&G launched “Love Over Bias,” the newest installment of its hallmark “Thank You, Mom” series. The film imagines what the world could be like if we all saw each other through a mom’s eyes.

I am personally a sucker for these beautiful videos- last year’s “Thank You, Mom” campaign video still makes me cry whenever I see it. It’s important that those with big voices draw attention to unfair and unnecessary biases, in hopes of making a difference. As parents, we know that teaching and guiding our children to overcome adversity is one of the greatest things we can do for them. I wished every boy on that baseball field could see my daughter the same way I do – a strong baseball player that can hold her own amongst all the boys!

Though she was momentarily deterred from playing on the nearly all-boys team from their jeering, Zoe persevered and not only finished the camp, but went back the following year to clean up in achievement awards for her age group!

I am sure you’ll enjoy this video as much as I did as a mother, and be encouraged to share it using the hashtag #LoveOverBias with your own communities. The message is a strong and important one, and I am more than happy to support it!  I hope you will, too.