Not just Kellogg's, but most of Australia, it seems, has sat up and taken notice of Canberra's most famous eight-year-old, Daliah Lee.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
After The Canberra Times last week broke the story that the year two student had persuaded Kellogg's to put girls doing "awesome things'' on its boxes of Nutri-Grain, she and her parents were besieged by media wanting to interview her. And on Thursday she became the Canberra Capital's women's basketball team's No.1 season ticket holder.
"I'm very, very excited,'' she said, of the honour. "I didn't expect to get a t-shirt and ball as well.''
Daliah said the Capitals were "definitely'' her favourite sporting team.
"I just like that they're all women and they do such an amazing job. They're so cool," she said.
It was another exciting development for Daliah who since last week's story in The Canberra Times, has appeared on the Today show, The Project, 106.3, Radio National, a newspaper in New Zealand and a radio station in Coffs Harbour, got a big shoutout on Facebook from Em Rusiano and will be interviewed by Constance Hall on her podcast. Her mother, Annabelle, on Thursday also got a request from NBC news in New York.
"It's been a pretty full-on week but also pretty exciting to see that Daliah's voice can be heard and be so well-received,'' Annabelle said.
It was on The Project on Sunday night, that she was asked who she would like to see on the Nutri-Grain boxes. Among her answers was the Canberra Capitals.
The Capitals also on Thursday conducted a coaching clinic at Daliah's school, the Southern Cross Early Childhood School in Scullin. The children were thrilled to have the players in their midst, showing off their skills which, for guard Kia Nurse, also extended to a pretty good floss dance.
Capitals co-captain Marianna Tolo said the team more than supported Daliah's message that males and females deserved equal coverage.
"Because I think a lot of people subconsciously don't notice those sorts of things and to have Daliah see that and go, 'Well, this is not right', it kind of opens your eyes and shows you the deeper levels of gender differences in society today,'' Tolo said.
Daliah had been upset that only boys, not girls, were depicted on the Nutri-Grain boxes, especially when they were all shown in high-action sports. She believed girls could do all those things and more and should also be on the boxes.
Kellogg's initially gave a bland response to Daliah, who then put up a petition on change.org, calling for a rethink of the boxes and that "girls should be equal to boys in advertising''.
Kellogg's eventually relented and said girls would be on the boxes also from next year.
Daliah said the media attention had been "quite stressful'' but she hadn't give up her plans to become prime minister. And was even prepared to give playing for the Caps a go.
"I might be a Caps player for a little while and then when I'm old enough to be prime minister, I will change to be prime minister,'' she told a media scrum on Thursday.
Southern Cross Early Childhood School principal Lyndall Read said on Thursday the school, which helped Daliah come up with the idea of a petition, said it had received a lot of positive feedback.
"It has been fairly crazy and we've had interest internationally, as well as nationally, but the bottom line is, we can take children seriously, we can listen to children and understand children can see things that we as adults don't even see,'' Ms Read said.
