Transgender Girl Scout Sells Thousands Of Cookies After Facing Transphobic Criticism

Stormi, a 9-year-old transgender Girl Scout in Herrin, Illinois, has made one of her transphobic haters eat his words by selling more than 3,000 boxes of cookies and counting after she was told by a neighbor, "nobody wants to buy cookies from a boy in a dress."

"It made me sad, because I'm a girl," Stormi told BuzzFeed News. Her last name has not been released.

Shortly after the unpleasant encounter, Stormi's foster mom, Kim, moved all of her cookie operations to Digital Cookie 2.0, the updated platform where Scouts can sell their cookies online. With investments from Visa and Dell, the platform allows girls to create personalized websites where they can connect with customers, and gain a better understanding of business strategy and digital marketing.

Kim then posted about her daughter's struggles in an online forum for parents of transgender children, and quickly garnered support for Stormi in the form of letters and social media encouragement. As a foster child, Stormi's goal was to sell cookies to benefit foster children, and to send them cookies, which she now plans to do every year.

Stormi's story even reached Lauren Brickman and Caitlin Foye, two improv performers and former Girl Scouts in New York City, who offered free admission to their show on January 29 with any proof of purchase of Stormi's cookies. Within days of Stormi's story spreading across the Internet, she managed to sell more than 3,000 boxes of cookies, with some requests coming from as far away as Australia.

Stormi's personal campaign to benefit foster children has since ended, but you can still place orders from her webpage through March. "I want kids like me to know they are perfect just the way they are," Stormi said. "There are people all over the world that love you. Never give up because it does get better."

The Girl Scouts organization declined to comment for this story.