The Best Thing You'll Read All Day

[Trigger warning for bullying and gender essentialism.]

'The Force' is with you, Katie.

Katie Goldman's universe extends from her home to her first-grade classroom. She is a big sister to Annie Rose and Cleo, a piano player, a Spanish student, a wearer of glasses. She loathes the patch she has to wear for one lazy eye. She loves magic and princesses and "Star Wars," an obsession she picked up from her dad.

The 7-year-old carried a "Star Wars" water bottle to school in Evanston, Illinois, every day, at least until a few weeks ago, when Katie suddenly asked to take an old pink one instead. The request surprised Katie's mom, Carrie Goldman. It didn't make any sense. Why would her little sci-fi fan make such a quick turn?

Goldman kept pressing for an answer. She wasn't expecting Katie's tears. Kids at school insisted that "Star Wars" was only for boys, her daughter wailed.

..."Is this how it starts?" Goldman wrote in her blog, Portrait of an Adoption. "Do kids find someone who does something differently and start to beat it out of her, first with words and sneers? Must my daughter conform to be accepted?"

Oof, the pangs. I was a Katie. (Let's be honest: I am a Katie.) I got my first pair of glasses at age 8. I had my own Darth Vader helmet carrying case for all my Star Wars action figures. I was the only girl who played Ewoks on the playground during recess. I begged my mom to pull my long hair into Princess Leia buns.


It wasn't always easy being That Kid. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home with a mother who fixed things and a dad who did laundry; when someone would tell me something I did was "only for boys," my first thought, from a very young age, was, "Obviously not." But that still didn't make it easy. Just easier than it might otherwise have been.

Some people who read about Katie's story decided to make it easier than it might otherwise be for her.

Back in Evanston, Carrie Goldman was feeling good. Since she had written about the water bottle incident, other parents at Katie's school had talked to their kids. School leaders were supportive, and working on an anti-bullying program.

Something else was happening, too: Traffic on Goldman's blog was exploding.

Some 1,200 people had left messages there for Katie. Readers were coming from Yates' blog, where more than 3,000 more comments stacked up. There were links from "Star Wars" message boards, parenting blogs, tech sites. A Twitter hashtag, #maytheforcebewithkatie, streaked across social media.

Guys and gals of all ages wrote about how they'd been bullied, and how life had gotten so much better since then. They shared that they loved "Star Wars," that they wore glasses, that they were adopted -- just like Luke, just like Leia, just like Katie.

ThinkGeek, a nerdy online retailer, sent Katie a lightsaber. Artist Scott Zirkel sent a cartoon of Katie as a Jedi, glasses and all. A first-grade class in California sent letters to Katie as a show of support.

Taber and the rest of the cast of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," sent "Star Wars" merch. Ashley Eckstein, who voices the female Jedi Ahsoka Tano, sent Her Universe clothes tailored for girls. Tom Kane, who voices Yoda, escorted the Goldmans to a screening near their home.

The thousands of comments left online will be bound into a book for Katie to read whenever she needs it.

Blub.

Sometimes it's not so much that the world gets better; it's just that your own world gets bigger, and you find out you're not as alone as you once thought.

[H/T to Shaker Cindy.]