What a Doll and Some Online Friends Taught My Daughter About Acceptance

I have an eleven year old daughter who is completely obsessed with Ever After High and Monster High. She loves watching the movies, playing the video games, reading their books and of course wants to buy every single doll that Mattel puts out. This company has done a fabulous job of marketing to tweeners like my daughter. The one thing they may need to work on is quality control in their product line. Never fear though, this company's snafu was not my daughter's undoing.  We had some special friends who helped us figure out what to do.

Faybelle Thorn

Recently, my daughter bought Ever After High's Faybelle Thorne. Being the responsible mom that I am, I made my daughter use her own hard earned money to purchase this doll. My child was so excited to rip into the package to hold this doll that she did not wait until we got home. She opened it in the car. Normally this is not a problem for her. She has figured out how to circumnavigate the Houdini like packaging. On this day, as we were driving home, I heard a shriek from the back seat. I almost pulled over to the side of the road, because I was certain that my daughter had cut herself on the plastic case. Before doing so, I inquired as to what the problem was. In a heartbroken voice my daughter told me that her new doll had two right feet. In her mind the world was going to come to an end. We'd already had a long day, so I convinced her that we would survive and figure things out once we got home. 

When we arrived at our humble abode, I quickly inspected the doll and sure enough she had two right feet. We had no way of knowing that this was going to happen because in the sealed package the doll had boots on.

What?!!!! Two right feet???

After we settled in a bit, I shared the story on my Facebook page. I asked my followers what we should do. Some said we should take it back, others said we should contact the company, but the overwhelming majority said I should use this as an opportunity to teach my child about differences. My girl has an invisible disability herself. She has bipolar disorder with a splash of autism. She wants so desperately to be accepted and loved for who she is as a person. I seized this opportunity as a chance to show her that people with visible disabilities want the same thing as she does.

Once I processed everything, I went into my daughter's room and told her that she should keep the doll. I explained that she should celebrate its disability. The next thing I knew my child was fashioning a leg brace for Faybelle out of blanket fleece and tape. It was the cutest thing ever. She really embraced the concept of accepting her doll's imperfection. I couldn't have been prouder of my girl.

Faybelle with her leg brace.

Sometimes we need others to help us realize the important things we need to teach our children. This time it was some strangers in far off places who I may never meet in person, but who I have already met and become friends with in my heart. Thank you dear ones.

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