Forty Years of Free to Be... You and Me: Looking Back at a Children's Classic and the Difference It Made

“Parents are People.” “William Wants a Doll.” “It’s All Right to Cry.” Celebrate Free to Be... You and Me’s 40th anniversary with historians Lori Rotskoff and Laura Lovett, co-editors of the new book When We Were Free to Be, as they discuss the creation and legacy of this popular children’s classic with a lively panel of songwriters, authors and commentators.

Were things really better in the days before Bratz dolls and Batman remakes? How has the world of gender changed for boys, girls and the folks who raise them? Does children’s media make a difference? Join us for an unabashed discussion of how songs, stories, toys and television have inspired audiences to challenge gender and racial stereotypes from the 1970s through the present day.