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Utah Teen Creates Gender-Equal, Racially Diverse Deck Of Cards

16-Year-Old Girl Created Deck That Swapped Kings, Queens and Jacks For Monarchs, Dukes and Dutchesses, And Princes And Princesses

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A Utah teen created a new deck of playing cards to reflect what she perceives to be gender and racially inequality within the typical 52-card deck.

In 2020, 16-year-old Maayan Segal started a small business with her father called “Queeng,” which is the name of her new deck of cards. The name stems from combining the words “king” and “queen.”

The deck still has the same suits and general ranks, but the names of the cards were changed. The kings were changed to “monarchs,” the queens were changed to “dukes” and “duchesses” and the jacks were changed to “princes” and “princesses.” There are two of each gender for each rank.

In her latest reboot, the deck now has incorporated different ethnicities. There will be a few picture cards of every rank that have darker skin complexions for its characters.

“This doesn’t actually represent the people of the world as we really are,” said Segal in a press release. “And if we are going to give kids these cards to hold in their hands and play with, don’t we want them to see an accurate depiction of the world?! And so, I created the first ever multi-ethnic deck of cards, where, once again, men and women are equal but now with more colors and characteristics.”

The project has received $170,000 in funding from its crowdfunding efforts.