The Winx Club has whitewashed two of their characters, Layla (Aisha) and Flora. It’s very disheartening to see a show as big as the Winx Club take back the representation they gave to so many children. There was no reason for them to do this, and to see how upset it made my friend really hurts me. I, personally, never watched the show, but hearing that a large company once again decided to whitewash their characters is disgusting. Representation is needed in the media. We see white characters everywhere. I never had to worry about relating to a character because there was always a white person in everything I read and watched.
Even when POC characters are in the media, they often are used as stereotypes. Lots of them aren’t even main characters. The earlier seasons of Winx Club showed strong, female, black characters. Now, they’ve taken it all away. This petition is for the girls and boys who grew up with Winx Club. It’s to remind ourselves that representation matters. It’s to show that white skin isn’t the only skin. Everyone can be a hero, and that seeing yourself on the big screen can inspire us. Nickelodeon, you should do better. Whitewashing characters in a kids cartoon was a low. Even if Nickelodeon wasn’t responsible for the whitewashing of the characters, the people who were should be ashamed.