Recently, my 3 yo daughter has been requesting that I change most characters in her story books to girls when I read them to her. She will correct me: "No daddy, Piglet is a girl. Rabbit is a girl."

Yesterday she told me that Yankee Doodle is a girl. It made me realize that most protagonists in children's books are boys, even in modern ones. It's not that I didn't know it, but her calling it out made me feel a bit guilty and frustrated. No single book is flawed by this fact, but her collection of books is.

I am going with it, and have begun to preemptively change male characters to girls, especially when they are animals, and they may as well be.

In a snap decision, although Yankee now sticks a feather in her hat, I decided that she could still be handy with the girls.