Background:
“Let’s imagine you are going to take a young friend to the toy store today and the two of you are going to buy a doll. You want to find a doll that allows for play – real play – but not one that is complicated or requires batteries.
Nothing sexy or sassy or messy, but something sweet. Perhaps something your little friend can take to bed…or maybe one that can go to the hospital for an upcoming series of treatments.
If your friend looks like my little girl, Kalea, the choices are endless. Kalea has blonde hair and blue eyes and fair skin. In fact, she could be the young version of many of the princesses she so dearly loves.
But let’s imagine that your friend doesn’t look like her. Your friend has a limb difference. Or maybe she lived through the horrors of a house fire and her skin tells the story of that trauma.
Actually, let’s pretend your friend’s cocoa-colored skin is a road map of scars where they cut tumors out of his body. His hair hasn’t grown back following months of chemotherapy and radiation, so he is bald. Do you see one like that on the shelves?
I am a doll maker. I make dolls for kids who will never see themselves on the store shelves. I work tirelessly to get dolls into the arms (and legs!) of the kids they belong to. I want to tell you my story because I believe you will fall in love with them, too. It might help us understand what ‘representation’ actually means and why it’s so important.
We are a global community and at the end of the day, we belong to each other. I also believe we all have a skill set – something we can offer each other. This doll-making happens to be mine.
Let’s go a bit further…when DO you see kids like that? How often do you see those sweet faces in commercials or in books? What was the last TV show you saw featuring a child like one of the above? Not very often, right? Those are my kids.
Those are the ones I fall in love with every single day. Those are the ones whose features I study and find so enduring. Those are the stories that sometimes move me to tears and are hard to read. Those are the kids who should look into the sweet face of a doll and see their own.