Slaton on Stephen - Using Your Voice For Equality

Danielle Slaton for Goal Five

A Stephen Curry tweet I stumbled upon last week is getting a lot of play on social media. A 9-year old girl from Napa, Riley Morrison, wrote the following letter to the NBA superstar:

Dear Stephen Curry, 

My name is Riley (just like your daughter J), I’m 9 years old from Napa, California. I am a big fan of yours. I enjoy going to Warriors games with my dad. I asked my dad to buy me the new Curry 5’s because I’m starting a new basketball season. My dad and I visited the Under Armour website and were disappointed to see that there were no Curry 5’s for sale under the girl’s section. However, they did have them for sale under the boy’s section, even to customize. I know you support girl athletes because you have two daughters and you host an all-girls basketball camp. I hope you can work with Under Armour to change this because girls want to rock the Curry 5’s too.

Sincerely, 

Riley Morrison

Here was Steph Curry’s reply back to Riley:

Hey Riley,

I appreciate your concern and have spent the last 2 days talking to Under Armour about how we can fix the issue. Unfortunately, we have labeled smaller sizes as “boys” on the website. We are correcting this now! I want to make sure you can wear my kicks proudly – so I am going to send you a pair of Curry 5’s now and you’ll be one of the first kids to get the Curry 6. Lastly, we have something special in the works for International Women’s Day on March 8^th, and I want you to celebrate with me! More to come on that, but plan to be in Oakland that night! All the best! #ruinthegame

Stephen

Here are my comments to Stephen Curry, Riley Morrison, and Riley’s dad:

Steph: Thank you for using your platform as a professional athlete to make a difference in the lives of girls and women. When you are willing to use your microphone, which is far louder than most of ours, people listen. But you not only took the time to respond to Riley, you went farther and reached out to Under Armour, as well. I truly believe that if we are to make progress, particularly in women’s sports, corporate sponsorships will play a key role. When companies support equality and threaten to take their sponsorship dollars away from organizations who don’t, we will begin to see real change. Hey…are any companies that sponsor FIFA listening right now?

Riley: Thank you for recognizing an issue and then acting. You may only be 9-years-old but this is an important skill in life that you’ve seemed to learn early on. As Goal Five Ambassador Julie Foudy always says, “Leadership is personal, not positional.” It is a choice. Being a leader is about recognizing something that needs to be done and then taking action to do it. Riley…will you be running for a political office any time soon? I’d vote for you.

Riley’s dad: I don’t know if you encouraged your daughter to write this letter, or if she did it on her own. But thank you for buying the stamp, paper, and pen, and creating an environment where Riley could find her voice and use it. In a world where girls and women are often valued for their beauty more than their voices and brains, thank you for helping to destroy that myth. Progress often happens in small steps and that letter you helped your daughter to write…that was one of them.