TORONTO -- A Michigan mother is encouraging parents to think about representation in children鈥檚 toys after her own daughter with Down syndrome was overjoyed to receive a doll that looked just like her.
Lindsay Filcik said a friend told her about a small shop called that made a doll resembling her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Ivy.
鈥淸It] honestly made me a little teary and just really made me realize how important it was and I had not really thought about that before actually seeing it. You know, just how important it is for kids like Ivy to be able to see herself represented,鈥� Filcik told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Wednesday.
When she gave the doll to her daughter, Filcik recalled the look on her face.
鈥淸Her] eyes lit up and she grabbed it and gave it the biggest hug,鈥� she said. 鈥淪he just absolutely adores it.鈥�
Because the doll had made such an impression on her daughter, Filcik on her Facebook page in which she urged all parents, not just those of children with disabilities, to buy their children representative toys.
鈥淟ack of representation also hurts those children who are represented. They grow up with the incredibly skewed perception that everybody looks like them. And anybody who doesn鈥檛 isn鈥檛 鈥榥ormal鈥� and should be feared. That, my friends, is how racism and ableism can be perpetuated in our kids without us even realizing it,鈥� she said.
Filcik said children like her daughter deserve to be seen.
鈥淭here are a lot of kids out there who have disabilities and who really deserve to be able to see themselves represented in the toys they play with and what they watch,鈥� she said.
