News

Actions

Utah dad spends $1K on Wonder Woman costume to teach 3-year-old daughter about female strength

Posted at 7:11 PM, Oct 31, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-01 16:29:27-04

SANDY, Utah -  A father’s message to his 3-year-old daughter Nellie Rossi about “woman power” cost him a pretty penny this Halloween.

Commercial photographer Josh Rossi spent $1,500 to design her a Wonder Woman costume. He said it was worth it because he wanted to teach her a lesson about woman superheroes by not focusing on their beauty but on their power.

Rossi also used his daughter's photo shoot in the costume to teach his Photoshop students how to create a scene like the one he shot with Nellie.

“There are a few other women superheroes and I just thought they were overly sexualized,” Rossi said.

He decided to take the powerful Wonder Woman costume and re-create it to show Nellie, about how tough she is as a girl.

“The message I’m trying to send her is women empowerment,” Rossi said. “I saw a movie recently where Wonder Woman was more powerful than Superman and she was just kicking butt and I was so excited about that specific scene.”

Rossi knew he’d need some serious pre-production work, so he turned to a company he has been wanting to work with for years, McGrew Studio, who are masters of costume design.

“Everything is hand-painted. Took about a month for everything to be created,” Rossi said.

About $1,500 later, Nellie looked the part with the black leather shoes, the arm guards, the leather bodice, the head crown, and of course the sword and shield.

“She comes in screaming Wonder Woman with her sword and shield and it’s struggle to get it off her for bedtime!” Rossi said with a smile on his face.

She also acts the part, having watched the scene her dad described in "Batman versus Superman" and watching the trailer, she learned to mimic the many faces of Wonder Woman.

“I looked at this more than just spoiling me daughter or something, I really wanted to not only show her there is different type of woman you can look at for role models but I also wanted to put a message out there,” Rossi said.

His Wonder Woman effort is having a wonderful impact.

“We have videos with three-and-a-half-millions views on it we are getting calls from everybody," Rossi said. "I don’t think Nellie understands the publicity but she is learning about woman being strong or stronger than 'Super man.'"

The costume was made to last Nellie another year or two.