On September 26, 2025, a seemingly routine visit to a Build-A-Bear Workshop in Tukwila, Washington, turned into a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over politics and personal expression in public spaces. Evi McCormick, a 16-year-old from Tukwila, set out with friends to the Southcenter Mall location, her goal clear and heartfelt: to create a teddy bear in honor of Charlie Kirk, the conservative commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, who was assassinated just weeks earlier while speaking at Utah Valley University. What happened next would ripple far beyond the walls of the toy store, sparking discussion about workplace conduct, customer service, and the boundaries of political disagreement.
According to multiple reports from Daily Mail, Fox News, and OutKick, Evi was participating in a trend that had taken hold on social media platforms like TikTok—young people across the country were naming their stuffed animals after Kirk to pay tribute to his memory. For Evi, Kirk was more than just a public figure. "I was just mesmerized and captivated that he could speak with such elegance," she told KING5, a local NBC affiliate. "He was a role model."
After carefully building her bear and dressing it in a suit and red tie, Evi approached the final step of the in-store experience: creating a birth certificate for her new companion. She filled out the name as "Charlie Kirk," ready to commemorate the activist who, as she put it, had "captivated" her when he spoke. But the moment quickly soured. As Evi recounted to KING5, "She just didn't agree with it. She didn't support it, and she told me, 'We're not doing this,' folded it up in a force and threw it away." The employee's refusal to print the name left Evi stunned, and she promptly handed her credit card to a friend, Kailie Lang, to pay for the bear before walking out of the store.
For Evi and her friends, the encounter was jarring. "It definitely made us all very uncomfortable," Lang told KING5. Evi herself was shaken enough to call her father from outside the shop, sobbing as she tried to process what had happened. In a Facebook post about the ordeal, Evi described herself as "appalled" by the employee's behavior, writing, "Safe to say, I will not be returning, and my heart genuinely hurts." She later shared a video of the bear accompanied by audio of Kirk speaking, adding, "Charlie Kirk is an idol to me, and to feel the hate, even onto his supporters, is so unfortunate."
The incident did not end at the store. Evi's mother, Amber McCormick, took action by contacting Build-A-Bear's corporate office. She spent nearly an hour on the phone with a representative, who offered a $20 gift card for the poor customer service—a gesture that, as Amber pointed out, did not even cover the cost of a standard-sized stuffed animal. Days later, the company reached out again to apologize, admitting the incident should not have happened. "She said that their goal is to try to prevent this sort of situation from happening to anybody else," Amber told KING5, relaying the company’s assurance that steps would be taken to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Build-A-Bear, for its part, told Evi's family that they would be training employees in the Seattle area to avoid bringing politics into the workplace, a move reported by Fox News and OutKick. A customer service representative confirmed to KING5 that the matter was being handled internally, and the company declined further comment to the press. The story, first reported on October 5, 2025, quickly gained traction online and in national media outlets, with reactions pouring in from both supporters and critics of the store’s handling of the situation.
The controversy comes at a time of heightened political sensitivity in the United States, especially in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination on September 10, 2025. Kirk, known for founding Turning Point USA and for his outspoken conservative views, was killed while addressing students at Utah Valley University. His death prompted an outpouring of grief from supporters and a wave of memorials, including the very trend that brought Evi to Build-A-Bear that day. The manhunt for Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, 22, ended after two days with Robinson’s arrest on capital murder charges.
But the fallout from Kirk’s death has extended beyond memorials and vigils. As Daily Mail reported, reactions to the assassination have led to a slew of firings across the country, including the suspension of a Kansas professor over comments made online. Meanwhile, the Build-A-Bear incident has become emblematic of the broader challenges companies face when customer requests intersect with employees’ personal beliefs.
For some, the employee’s refusal to print the name “Charlie Kirk” on a teddy bear’s birth certificate was an unacceptable intrusion of personal politics into a customer’s experience. "It wasn't political until she made it that way," Evi commented, pointing to the frustration she felt over what she saw as an unnecessary escalation. Her friend’s request for a blank sheet—so that the name could be written in later—was also denied, compounding their disappointment.
Others, however, have questioned whether employees should be required to fulfill requests that make them uncomfortable, especially when those requests are politically charged. The incident has reignited debates about free speech, workplace neutrality, and the responsibilities of both employees and employers in navigating contentious issues. Build-A-Bear’s decision to focus on employee training reflects an attempt to strike a balance, aiming to "prevent this sort of situation from happening to anybody else," as the company’s representative told the McCormicks.
As the story continues to circulate, it serves as a microcosm of the larger cultural and political tensions playing out across the country. For Evi McCormick, the experience was a personal disappointment, but also a catalyst for a wider conversation about respect, tolerance, and the limits of personal expression in public life. Whether Build-A-Bear’s new training policies will prevent future incidents remains to be seen, but the company’s swift response suggests a recognition of the stakes involved.
In the end, what began as a teenager’s tribute to a fallen role model has become a touchstone for a national debate—one that, for better or worse, shows no sign of fading from the public consciousness.
