NYC Neighborhood Organizes Parade After Girl Is Told She Can't Be Spider-Man

A 4-year-old girl's dream to be her favorite superhero has inspired a neighborhood parade in NYC, according to reports. 

Ellie Evangelista told her mother that boys in her Hudson Heights pre-K class said she couldn't pretend to be Spider-Man because she's a girl, DNAinfo reported.

"She started coming home and talking about not wanting to be a girl anymore," Margaret Ryan, Ellie's mother, told DNAinfo.

"I didn't like that at only 4 she was having to grapple with something like this, that she didn't want to be who she is," Ryan said.

Ryan reached out to local parents online for advice and they decided to organize a parade in which kids could dress up as their favorite superhero regardless of their gender.

The Uptown Superheroes March takes place Sunday, June 7 at 11 a.m. The parade will start at Bennett Park, at Ft. Washington Avenue and 185th Street, and move along Ft. Washington Avenue to Fort Tryon Park.

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