Even if you’ve never been to Disney World, you can probably hear a voiceover of Micky saying, “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” before greeting the little ones making their way into the magical place. And though that’s been in the recorded greeting to the park for decades, Disney has recently decided it was time to make quite the change to these words.

Instead of outright saying “boys” and “girls” or using any kind of gender pronouns in their messaging, Disney will now change their vocabulary to be more gender inclusive. They’ll use different phrases that are not gender specific as to not offend anyone who may not want to be referred to as a boy or girl. The new words will not promote any kind of gender and keep things more neutral.

“We provided training for all of our cast members in relationship to that. So now they know it’s ‘Hello, everyone,’ or ‘Hello, friends,'” explained Vivian Ware, Disney’s diversity and inclusion manager.

The change has already gone into effect at Walt Disney World in Florida and is slated to do the same at other parks as well. There have already been videos on social media that show how the change has been put into place. For example, after a fireworks hiatus due to the pandemic, they decided to use different wording when they finally brought it back.

“When we brought the fireworks back to the Magic Kingdom, we no longer say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ we say, ‘Dreamers of all ages,'” Ware explained.

Disney has always had a lot of associations with “princesses” and “princes,” and now, to fit in with the modern day and age, they want to ensure that they’re being accommodating of everyone’s preferences, especially children.

“We don’t want to just assume because someone might be, in our interpretation, may be presenting as female, but they may not want to be called ‘princess,'” Ware said. “I love the fact that it’s opened up the creativity, the opportunity for our cast members to look at that.”

This isn’t the first time Disney has pushed for more inclusivity. This comes around the same time employees staged a recent walkout in the wake of Florida’s controversial “Parental Rights in Education” bill. Additionally, in April 2021, it was announced that inclusion was added to Disney’s “fifth key.”

What do you think of Disney taking out gender pronouns and wanting to promote more gender inclusion?