As children with disabilities grow older, they start to recognize their differences. One British toy maker wants to change that into a positive thing. They want to celebrate those differences, and have done so by creating a line of dolls specifically focusing on disabilities, and helping disabled children feel confident and included.
The line started as an online social media campaign called Toy Like Me. The campaign encouraged parents of children with various disabilities to customize their dolls, to include hearing aids, wheelchairs, oxygen tubes, etc. The results were then posted online and a movement began.
People from all over the world began to share their photos of their homemade dolls, and soon the Toy Like Me campaign went viral. The next step was for a toy company to support the campaign and create an official line of customized dolls so that disabled children could eventually have a toy just like them.
A British toy maker called Makies has jumped on board and is getting ready to release a new line of customized dolls with the original name “Toy Like Me”. The line will include options like wheelchairs, guide dogs, birthmarks, walking canes and more.
The company hopes that the new line will encourage confidence in children with disabilities and help them to have toys they can relate to in a world that typically creates unrealistic beauty standards when it comes to dolls.
