Father launches 'MoreThanCute' campaign after feeling frustrated at girls' Halloween costumes

'The costumes designed for girls tell them the only thing that society truly values is that they look cute'

John Marcotte with his daughters Stella and Anya (John & Patti Marcotte)

A father has launched a campaign to call for a greater variety of Halloween costumes for girls, after finding all the outfits available were too "cute".

John Marcotte, from California, was frustrated at the lack of superhero costumes when shopping for his daughters - Stella and Anya - and those that were available only came in hot pink.

In comparison to the boys' costumes, he found those made for girls were designed to look "cute".

Mr Marcotte, who runs Heroic Girls, which aims to empower young girls by advocating strong role models, told The Independent: "We looked at all the costumes in a Halloween store. While boys were given the choice to be scary, heroic or funny; girls' costumes overwhelmingly were focused on looking 'cute'. There is nothing wrong with cute, but it should not be the only choice on the shelf for girls."

He wrote on his website: “The costumes designed for girls... tell them that no matter what they aspire to be, the only thing that society truly values is that they look ‘cute’.”

(Heroic Girls/Facebook)

“That cycle needs to be broken. We think girls dream just as big as boys. We think their potential is unlimited. We think that their costumes should be ‘more than cute’,” he wrote.

The #MoreThanCute campaign encourages parents to share images of their daughters on social media wearing costumes to "inspire them to aspire to be something more than decorative this Halloween".

Among the images posted by parents, some have dressed their little girls as Ghostbusters and Stormtroopers.

Mr Marcotte, a web designer, told The Independent that boys and girls needed to know that it was not necessary to be confined to traditional gender roles.

He told ABC News: “I want [my daughters] to grow up in a world where they have more options than just looking ‘cute’.”