I read
this article the other day in my local newspaper and was so deeply touched and moved by what this mother decided to do.
When Hannah Feda was 9 years old, she told her mother that there was no doll that looked like her. There were other dolls who looked like her siblings, but no doll that looked like a child with Down Syndrome. Her mother Connie searched online and found that Hannah was right. There were no dolls to be found that looked like her daughter. So she decided to make some herself.
The dolls sell online for $75 and are already into the second preordering (1,000 have been sold) so it would seem to me that there is a market for these dolls. And as Connie Feda said in the article, they aren't just meant for children with Down Syndrome and that fact wasn't lost on me.
There has been backlash from the Canadian Down Syndrome Society, fearing that people will assume that all those born with Down Syndrome look alike and that it is feeding a stereotype. I understand that concern. But if a child with Down Syndrome felt "isolated" because no one thought it important enough to make dolls that look like she looks, that means more to me than the "fear" of misinterpretation for the world. And keep in mind that these dolls have been created and produced by a mother of a child with Down Syndrome wanting to do something positive. It isn't a toy manufacturer looking at a way to cash in and make money. There's a vital difference there.
When it comes to dolls...walk down any doll aisle in a store and tell me how these faces are all so unique and so different. It was years before doll manufacturers realized we needed dolls of colour and other ethnicity's. How about Barbie and Ken...how many young women and young men look like Barbie and Ken? Does this mean that every doll made should be made so that anyone can imagine what they want the doll to look like?
I have my own issues about Barbie dolls and the message that the doll gives to young women. It isn't a realistic portrayal of a young woman but for decades Barbie dolls have been a successful seller.
Is there something wrong with a child having a doll that more closely resembles who she/he is? Is there something wrong with a mother finding a way to make her child feel less isolated and different? Is there something wrong with sending a message that we don't all look alike, that we don't necessarily look like the doll (read toy) that we play with or place on our bed or our night stand? Is there something wrong with having a choice of which we would prefer to purchase?
If a child wants a doll that says this is how part of the population looks and there is nothing wrong with that, and having that doll adds to the child's sense of self-worth that can only be a good thing.
We all want to "fit in" to blend in with the world in which we live. But we all have something about us that makes us unique that sets us apart that says "this is who I am". They aren't flaws, they are what make us special. If recognizing and celebrating those differences means finding ways to move forward and accepting ourselves for who we are, for how we look then I'm all for that. Perhaps it's time we started to embrace all of who we are rather than trying to "fit in" and blend in.
