I spotted these well-worn Frozen princess shoes at the post office this afternoon — on a young, rambunctious boy.

He and his brother were pretending to sword fight with the chained pens on the counter and kept dropping their trucks on the floor. They were everything you’d expect from a pair of young boys — dirty, squirming, rowdy, all over the place. Except that one boy had Elsa and Anna on his shoes.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that before. It’s not…traditional.

But then it occurred to me: why shouldn’t he want to wear those shoes? Elsa and Anna are cool. I always give a little fist pump when I see little girls sporting Superman capes or Batman gear. Get it, girl. You got this, girl. You can be whatever you want to be, girl — including a superhero, girl! Girl power!!!!

So why is it a surprise that a boy would look up to strong females? Why shouldn’t this be encouraged?

Maybe today’s kids aren’t associating heroes with a gender. Maybe they don’t even think about it? Maybe they have been introduced to enough strong or cool female characters that the playing field is starting to level a little?

But you know what? When you get right down to it, you can’t spell “hero” without “he” — or “her.”

We all just really need heroes that are worthy of our admiration. He and Her.