With Pride Month fast approaching, Lego decided to celebrate it with a special set of monochrome mini-figures that make up the colors of the rainbow.
The set’s theme is ‘Everyone Is Awesome’ and it will arrive in stores soon. The minds behind the LGBTQIA+-themed Lego discussed the inspiration for this new kit, and people are already loving it.
Creative designer Matthew Ashton initially created it for his own desk. He explained that he was inspired to create it after the Lego moved offices.
“I wanted to make the space feel like home with something that reflected me and the LGBTQIA+ community that I’m so proud to be a part of,” he said.
The ‘Everyone Is Awesome’ seems to be a success with ‘a clear nod to all the fabulous drag queens out there’.
After Lego revealed the themed set, the company received praises and enough of a demand for it to launch as a commercial product. Eventually deciding that the set would send an important message that could help a lot of people.
“Growing up as an LGBTQ+ kid, being told what I should play with, how I should walk, how I should talk, what I should wear, the message I always got was that somehow I was ‘wrong’,” Ashton said.
“Trying to be someone I wasn’t was exhausting. I wish, as a kid, I had looked at the world and thought, ‘This is going to be OK, there’s a place for me.’”
“I wish I’d seen an inclusive statement that said ‘everyone is awesome’.”
The Lego set also had a positive impact on other Lego employees.
“I’ve been at Lego for six years and I’ve never hesitated to be myself here, which isn’t the case everywhere,” Jane Burkitt, a fellow LGBTQ+ employee at Lego, told The Guardian. “When I joined Lego, I hoped it would be an inclusive place, but I didn’t know.”
“People like me wonder, ‘Will I be welcome here?’ And the answer is yes, but this set means that, now, everyone knows it.”
The new set is also getting support from fans outside the company.
“People look to a company such as Lego – a company they love and enjoy – and think, ‘Hey if it’s OK for Lego, maybe it’s OK for me, too,’” Flynn DeMarco, a member of the LGBTQ+ AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) community said.