A transgender girl in Downstate Herrin, Illinois, has used an incident of anti-trans bigotry as the impetus to sell thousands of Girl Scout cookies, according to Buzzfeed.
The nine-year-old girl, named Stormi ( just her first name was revealed in the report ), was told by a neighbor that, "Nobody wants to buy cookies from a boy in a dress." Stormi, who lives with a foster mother, joined the Girl Scouts last fall.
"It made me sad, because I'm a girl," Stormi recalled.
Stormi and her foster mother later moved all of her sales online to a digital portal, and decided to sell cookies that would be donated to other foster children like herself. After her foster mother detailed what happened on an online forum for parents of transgender kids, the story went viral and sales skyrocketedwithin days, Stormi had sold over 3,000 boxes of cookies.
"I want kids like me to know they are perfect just the way they are," she said. "There are people all over the world that love you. Never give up because it does get better."
According to the Girl Scouts website, "[If a] child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe."
In June, 2015, Girl Scouts of Western Washington returned a $100,000 donation after the donor stipulated that the money could not be used on behalf of transgender scouts. The council was able to subsequently raise nearly $249,000 in an online campaign to replace the donation.
Buzzfeed's article is at bzfd.it/1Sa3VqP .