A former Wisconsin social worker makes custom dolls for children with physical differences so they can finally 'see how beautiful they are'

• Amy Jandrisevits, a former social worker, started making dolls about five years ago for children with physical differences.
• The dolls, she said, help children cope with their differences and "see how beautiful they are."
• Since the small online business became a nonprofit last spring, 400 people have commissioned her to make dolls that look like a child in their lives.

Amy Jandrisevits has always kept dolls.

As a child, she played with them. And as an adult working as a social worker in oncology settings in Wisconsin, she used them to make it easier for worried children to express their feelings.

But she ran into a problem. For many of the children she was working with, there weren't always dolls available that looked like them.

For children who don't see themselves represented in the world, it can be isolating, Jandrisevits explained.

"You think of a child of color and you throw in some sort of medical difference — like being bald or having scars — the likelihood of you finding a doll that represents that is out of the question," Jandrisevits told Business Insider.

After she had her own children, Jandrisevits left her job as a social worker and has started using her doll-making skills to fill a gap she saw in the toy market. For the last five years, she has worked with the parents of children who have uncommon physical differences to make dolls that bear the same uniqueness that they do.

At first, families purchased the dolls at $100 each.

Last year, though, A Doll Like Me became a nonprofit. Now, the cost of making each doll is covered through donations made to the organization, Jandrisevits said.

Since last spring, she's already made around 400 dolls at no cost to families, she said.

"I don't think this is something people should have to pay for. It should be a gift to the family from a stranger," Jandrisevits said. "All these parents want is for someone to see the same beautiful child they do."

It all started when an acquaintance asked Jandrisevits to make a doll that looked like her daughter, an amputee

The first "Doll Like Me" that Jandrisevits made was for an acquaintance. The woman had heard that Jandrisevits knew how to sew and asked her to make a doll that looked like her daughter, who's leg had been amputated.

That process taught Jandrisevits about the gap in the market. Though missing limbs are somewhat common, dolls featuring them are far and few between.

After that first project, word spread and she made a few more dolls, including one for a Chinese child with albinism.

Eventually, someone shared a photo of a child and their doll, and hundreds of parents started reaching out to Jandrisevits to ask for their own.

She's since been commissioned to make dolls featuring all kinds of differences, including cleft palates, rare skin diseases, and other anomalies.

She gets hundreds of messages on Facebook, many of them from parents saying, "I want my child to see how beautiful they are," Jandrisevits said.

Jandrisevits said she loves that she can use her skillset to fill a need in society and feels grateful to have met so many families in the process.

After receiving their dolls, parents will send Jandrisevits photos and videos of their children opening them. Some even send her updates years later about how the doll has had a positive impact on the child's personality, she said.

One of the first dolls that Jandrisevits made was for a girl named Hope, whose hand developed unusually. Hope's parents took a video of her opening her doll. When Hope saw that she and the doll had the same hand, she wept, Jandrisevits said.

"It was the first time she'd seen herself in something. Her eyes go to the doll's hand and she sobs into the doll," Jandrisevits said.

Hope, who is now a teenager, is still in contact with Jandrisevits.

"It was crazy because someone shared the video and I got 200 orders in two months. And that was only for dolls with limb differences," she said. "I've never done advertising. I've never had to. I've never been at a place where I'm on top of orders."

Another child Jandrisevits met virtually through A Doll Like Me was Sophia Weaver, of North Carolina. Weaver had Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic neurological and developmental disorder that affects brain development and leads to the decline of language, breathing, walking, motor, and social skills.

Weaver was viciously bullied online. People had repurposed photos of the child, which were originally posted with the intention of bringing positive attention and awareness to her rare condition, to advocate for abortion — using the young girl's condition as an example of why the procedures are needed.

From there, she became the subject of severe online abuse, leading to her mother to successfully campaign for Twitter to change its policy to include disability harassment in its reporting tools. Weaver died last May. She was 10 years old.

Jandrisevits said that making Weaver's doll, knowing that the girl would likely not live much longer, took an emotional toll. She knew that the doll would likely mean a lot to the family after she passed on and wanted to get it right.

"Her brother and sister have been using the doll for their therapy," Jandrisevits said.

"This is why a doll like me is not a factory," Jandrisevits added. "These kids are not a checklist. It's not, 'check the box if you need a hand missing or a leg missing.' It becomes a relationship."

Jandrisevits never imagined her handmade projects would attract this level of attention. Now she hopes it will change the market.

Jandrisevits remembers the day two years ago when her daughter Kalea, now 4, saw Cinderella for the first time and said she wished she looked like her.

Kalea is blonde and has blue eyes. Unlike many children, there is always a doll that looks like her, Jandrisevits said.

While there are exceptions — like American Girl — most mainstream toy brands are still making dolls that are either peach or brown, with few options in between, Jandrisevits said.

"Most kids don't look like my Kalea. She can go into any Target and see herself everywhere. She was two when she said she wished she looked like Cinderella," Jandrisevits said. "How do you ever expect these kids to develop any sort of confidence and love of their body if this is our mentality?"

Since A Doll Like Me started attracting attention from blogs and on social media, it has been included in a toy fair in Germany and will be an example used in a soon-to-be-released book about product inclusion, Jandrisevits said.

She is amazed by how popular such a simple idea has become and hopes that the toy industry will become more inclusive in the future.

"We all have these skillsets, and you'd hope that they use to advance a cause or an issue," Jandrisevits said. "The fact that this has entered a realm of toys changing a dialogue is amazing."

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