Build-A-Bear Employee Allegedly Refuses To Name Stuffed Animal After Charlie Kirk At Teen’s Request
A Build-A-Bear Workshop employee in Washington state allegedly refused to print the name “Charlie Kirk” on a teenage customer’s stuffed animal birth certificate, turning what was supposed to be a lighthearted mall visit into a heated political dispute.
Sixteen-year-old Evi McCormick visited the Build-A-Bear store at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila on Friday with a group of friends, according to King5 News. The teen from southwest Washington said she wanted to name her bear after Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, who was assassinated last month.
“I was just mesmerized and captivated that he could speak with such elegance,” McCormick told the outlet. “He was a role model.”
McCormick said the employee at the counter refused to complete the “birth certificate” that comes with every stuffed animal purchase, allegedly saying she wouldn’t support the name choice. “She just didn’t agree with it. She didn’t support it and she told me, ‘We’re not doing this,’ then folded it up forcefully and threw it away,” McCormick recalled.
The teen handed her payment card to a friend, Kailie Lang, who completed the transaction as McCormick walked away. “It definitely made us all very uncomfortable,” Lang said.
Evi’s mother, Amber McCormick, later spent nearly an hour on the phone with Build-A-Bear’s corporate office to report the incident. She said the company initially offered a $20 gift card before later calling back with a formal apology.
According to Amber, Build-A-Bear representatives admitted the employee’s actions were inappropriate and pledged to retrain staff both in the Seattle area and nationwide to ensure personal or political beliefs do not interfere with customer service.
“She said their goal is to prevent this sort of situation from happening to anybody else,” Amber McCormick said.
A sign inside the Tukwila Build-A-Bear location reminds customers not to choose “indecent or distasteful” names for their stuffed animals. Evi maintains her name choice was neither — and that the controversy only began when the employee injected politics into the situation.
“It wasn’t political until she made it that way,” she said.
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