Lifestyle

LEGO Unveils 'Everyone Is Awesome' Set For Pride Month

by Valerie Williams
LEGO

LEGO’s “Everyone is Awesome” set will be for sale just in time for Pride month!

If you were hoping to get a little misty-eyed over a toy today, look no further. LEGO has released a new set in honor of Pride Month and it’s called Everyone is Awesome and seriously, why am I getting emotional over rainbow-colored bricks? This truly is Awesome.

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The set was designed by Matthew Ashton, LEGO’s Vice President of Design. “Being LGBTQIA+ myself, I knew I needed to step up to the plate and make a real statement about love and inclusivity, and generally spread some LEGO® love to everybody who needs it,” he writes in a post about the set. Ashton shares that growing up as a gay child in the 1980s inspired him to create the set. “Being quite an effeminate kid, I was constantly told by different adults around me what I should and shouldn’t play with, that I needed to behave like a ‘real boy’ and to toughen up. I was dissuaded from doing the things that came most naturally to me,” he says.

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For Ashton, Everyone is Awesome is incredibly personal and he’s hoping it helps others on their path to coming out. “If I had been given this set by somebody at that point in my life, it would have been such a relief to know that somebody had my back. To know that I had somebody there to say ‘I love you, I believe in you. I’ll always be here for you.'”

That representation and support is truly what it’s all about. “Having LGBT-inclusive toys creates a space for families to let LGBT children know that they are loved and accepted,” Joe Nellist, from the UK’s LGBT Foundation, told CNN.

The 346-piece set contains 11 figures and will retail for $34.99.

LEGO

If you were thinking this set was just rainbow for the sake of it, you’d be wrong — Ashton had true intent behind every single color in the set. “We’ve made sure to include black and brown colors to represent the broad diversity of everyone within the LGBTQIA+ community,” he says. “We’ve also added in the pale blue, white and pink to support and embrace the trans community as well. I purposely put the purple drag queen in as a clear nod to the fabulous side of the LGBTQIA+ community. I hope it’s a joy to build and a joy to look at, and hopefully it will bring a lot of joy to people’s lives.”

LEGO

LEGO

Ashton says, “This sends a signal to everyone that this is what we stand for at The LEGO Group and that we want to embrace all of you, because creativity is for everyone. We do truly feel that everyone is awesome. We all have the right to be accepted, to be loved and also to be creative. With this set, we hope to show that we care, no matter who you are.”