An open letter to the Veggie Tales people

(UPDATE:Mere hours after I sent this e-mail to them (and I really did), I got a reply back, and it was not even entirely canned. See it at the end.)

Greetings to the great folks at Big Idea!

My five-year-old daughter is a big Veggie Tales fan. I've loved them since my college days. Today she and I were discussing some of the characters, and suddenly she asked me, "Mom? Why aren't there more GIRLS in Veggie Tales?"

I thought about it, and told her I was not sure, and promised I'd send you all an e-mail asking this very question.

Here's my list of boy and girl characters; I got the list from UltimateVeggie.com, and am not sure it's complete. But it seems there are indeed more boys than girls, and the only girl that appears quite often is Laura the Carrot.

GIRLS:
Laura the Carrot
Princess Petunia
Esther
Annie
The Rumor Weed
Madame Blueberry
Junior Asparagus' Mom
Ma Grape
Aunt Ruth
Rosey Grape

Total: 10 girls

BOYS:
Larry the Cucumber/Larry-Boy
Bob the Tomato
Junior Asparagus
Archibald Asparagus
Henry
Jerry Gourd
Mr. Lunt
Jimmy Guord
Baby Lou
Mr. Nezzer
Junior Asparagus' Dad
Palmy
Frankencelery
The Peach
The French Peas (2)
Qwerty (I'm assuming...is gender ever specified?)
Percy Pea
George
Goliath
Lenny
Scooter
Pa Grape
Li'l Pea
Tom Grape
The Scallions (3)

Total: 28 boys

I don't mean to imply that you should include more girls to be more PC. If it was my own question, that could be true. (I also realize that men seem to outweigh women in Bible stories). But my daughter herself noticed this and wondered, so instead of making up some reason that may or may not be true, I thought I would pass her question on to you.

Again, we LOVE Veggie Tales! We won't stop watching if there are no more girl characters. But I'm guessing this may not be the first time this question was asked, so we hope you'll consider more girls in the future!

Sincerely,
Two Veggie fans

Their reply:

Dear Andrea,

Greetings from your friends at Big Idea! Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

We truly appreciate your daughters inquiry! When Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki first created VeggieTales, they couldn't afford to hire voice artists. As a result, many of the VeggieTales characters are the voices of Phil and Mike. Phil does over a dozen voices, while Mike Nawrocki does over a half-dozen of them. However, our fans were looking for more female characters. With this in mind, Big Idea created "Esther -The Girl Who Became Queen." Esther is a very strong and admirable female role model.



Our recent release, "Duke and the Great Pie War" features the stories of Miriam and Moses and Ruth and Naomi! And…our very latest release features “Minnesota Cuke” features the very brave Julia. We're sure that your daughter would be very inspired by these very strong female characters!

You will be pleased to know that there are other female role models. Although some may play minor roles, these characters need not be underestimated as they also provide positive examples.

Laura the Carrot saves the day in “Rack, Shack and Benny”. In this same video, Shack’s mother, although she plays a very minor role is respected for how she has raised her son to stand up for what he believes.

Annie is a wise little girl, full of gratitude for all that God has given her in “Madame Blueberry.”

Your list of our characters is close to complete! Others who have also been special to us are Mom Asparagus, Lovey, Mom Carrot, Aunt Ruth, Ma Grape, Mom Pea and Annie’s Mom.

In our 2nd episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! series, “The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka”, Michelle takes flight with the penguins and saves the day!

We think these girls are a great start for finding a positive influence for young children!

Thank you again for sending us a note. Your daughter is truly blessed to have a mother who seeks positive role models for her. I hope this information has been helpful. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Kindest Regards,
Vicki Arnold
Customer Service