My almost-4-year-old came home from preschool last week very upset -- One of the older kids informed him that he can’t like pink because it’s a ‘girl’s colour’.

Pink just happens to be his favourite colour at the moment (for a few months, previously, it was black). Given the option, he recently chose pink shoes, then when asked what colour hat he’d like for summer, he wanted pink too, of course.

My friend’s 8 year old daughter has the same problem. She recently told us: “I'm a girl and I like science toys, cars and Ironman. Why do people think that these toys are for boys and put them in the boys' section? Lots of women are scientists and drive cars!”

Toy companies - both retailers and manufacturers - reinforce gender stereotypes from an absurdly young age. When they do that, they narrow the imaginations of our children, impacting the choices that they feel are socially acceptable, and limiting the future they can imagine for themselves.

Unless we change the way toys are marketed to children, pink will be always be for girls, blue for boys. It’s not going to solve all of society’s gender problems, but it’ll be a great first step.

Right now, companies like Toys-R-Us are making money from telling our kids what their futures should look like. I’m asking them to stop. We know that similar progress has been made in Europe, it’s time for it to happen in Australia too.

There are a few simple steps Toys-R-Us can take:

1 - Remove 'boy' and 'girl' headings from their website and marketing and sort toys by theme.

2 - Be diverse in their marketing - let’s see examples of both girls and boys playing with all sorts of toys

3 - Stop using pink and blue as proxies for 'girl' and 'boy' sections within marketing materials; let children know that a world of color is available to them.

Imagine the message it will send if thousands of Australians sign this petition saying: stop telling our kids what their destiny is going to be.

Let our children decide what they want to play with. Who they are. The colours they prefer. What they want to be when they grow up. Encourage choice, and just let our kids choose what they play with.

Play Unlimited

For more information on our plans, and to see the research about gender and toys visit our website http://www.playunlimited.org.au/ or our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Play-Unlimited/180133575511143