Being a parent means so many different things and so many different lessons that we need to instill in our children on a daily basis. It's a big responsibility. One of those lessons is undoubtedly the importance of diversity. The world that we live in needs so much more of this and it's up to us as parents to make sure that's recognized by our children. And it all starts at home.
Currently, a household favorite children's clothing line called, Hanna Andersson has been called out due to a huge lack of diversity in their brand, and now the CEO is officially stepping down, according to BuzzFeed News.
Mike Edwards, who has served as the company's CEO since April of 2019, decided to step down on Thursday "to focus on his family and personal interests," according to an internal email that was provided to BuzzFeed News.
"We look forward to Hanna's next chapter, building on our success, and to demonstrating to our customers and stakeholders the type of company we strive to be," the email states. "We recognize there is more work to do and we encourage you to continue providing feedback and creating an open dialogue. On behalf of both the Board and the Hanna leadership team, we commit to doing better."
Taking things back a notch to July, BuzzFeed News published a story that highlighted interviews with three current and six former Hanna Andersson staff members who said Edwards had a reputation for disagreeing with his staff, specifically when it came to issues about diversity in the company's marketing materials and staffing. (The company confirmed to BuzzFeed News there were zero Black employees among its 139 corporate staff.)
Yeah, this is something that should not be happening. Not today. Not ever.
Many employees, as we're sure did customers, with a great deal of tone death marketing materials that came from the company with their advertising as well as social media. Most specifically, their Instagram post released on May 31 amid riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
However, Edwards stands firm that he does not have an issue with diversity, eventually telling BuzzFeed News in July that both he and the company "strongly valued diversity and were taking steps to improve company culture." He also insisted he had never “lashed out” at any employee who had raised concerns about diversity.