Awesome Dollmaker Company Creates Dolls To Represent Kids With Disabilities

Anyone out there ever make one of those American Girl dolls you can customize to look like you? I did, once. It was awesome. And while American Girl definitely offers some diversity when it comes to their dolls, they’re very expensive dolls (especially these days) and not every toy company adopts that type of representation. A Facebook page called “Toy Like Me” recently initiated a campaign calling for more diverse and realistic representation in the toy industry, focusing mainly on dolls for kids with disabilities.

On the Facebook page, parents and other people have submitted their own personal “makeovers” to existing dolls and toys, as well as originial designs for toys to better represent their own children and others with disabilities. A British dollmaker company named Makies has responded to the “Toys Like Me” campaign and has begun developing accessories for their line of dolls like walkers, canes, hearing aids, and even a doll with a noticeable facial birthmark to help kids feel like their toys more accurately reflect them. Both boy and girl dolls are available, which is also pretty awesome. 

The Makies process allows kids to choose customized clothing and accessories for each doll, but also allows kids to customize facial features, skin colors, and hairstyles. Pretty cool, huh? It’s enough to make you wonder why something like this hasn’t really been done before.

Via a recent blog post, the Makies company released the following statement about the #ToysLikeMe campaign:

“Seeing as we could respond fast, we did: we put a bunch of things on hold and jumped into designing toy hearing aids, toy walking aids, and working out how to do facial birthmarks… plus Anthony and Zoe are working on a new 3D printed toy wheelchair, too!”

(Photo: Facebook)