A to Z Campaign:LEGO shows support for the LGBTQIA+ community

Let’s Take a Look At LEGO’s A to Z Campaign

To celebrate PRIDE, kids toy giant LEGO has created the A to Z of Awesome campaign to encourage self-expression and to honour the LGBTQIA+ community. A collection of newly designed, colourful Lego bricks has been released to encourage people to talk about topics such as gender, identity and sexuality. 

This move is a reaction to research by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), the American media monitoring organisation that found almost half (45%) of non-LGBTQIA+ people find the topic of gender identity confusing. A terribly alarming stat that sparks the need for more conversations to be had with people both in and outside of the LGBTQIA+ community. Doing so, will pave the way for deeper understanding from people who do not identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ and answer any questions they may be too shy or scared to seek the answers to. 

A short 60-second intro video explains how LEGO is bringing this campaign to life. The toy company is inviting members of the LGBTQIA+ community to build their own LEGO designs that tell the story of who they are and what identity they would like to express. Hope’s build envelopes intersectionality, while Pidgeon’s represents the intersex community. There’s also a way for others to get involved, through the online game. Step 1 involves choosing a word from LEGO’s specially designed LGBTQIA+ alphabet, or designing your own. Step 2 requires players to create the build with the inspiration being what that word means and feels. While Step 3 encourages people to share the love through the campaign hashtag #AtoZofAwesome on social media. 

The key takeaway to the LEGO A to Z of Awesome campaign is that everybody, no matter how they identify, is welcome. Welcome to play with Lego and welcome in the world. What it does is brings visibility to the community and educates people on terms they may never have heard of or be used to using. Opening up dialogue in this way destigmatises identity bias and provides hope and safety for those within the community, making them feel seen and heard. As Hope notes in the video, “Visibility equates value.” 

“The wonderful thing about LEGO bricks is that they can be a powerful form of self-expression as you can build anything you can imagine. We also know people love talking about what they build, so we thought it would be a great medium for sparking important and sometimes difficult conversations about identity”, says Alero Akuya, VP of Brand Development (she/her), the LEGO Group. 

Lego is calling for submissions online as the brand plans to have a video for each letter of the alphabet by the end of 2023. Enter here.