A ten-year old girl suffering from muscular dystrophy launched a petition on Change.org that request for toy brand Mattel to create dolls that have disabilities, Yahoo! Shine reports.
Melissa Shang of Pennsylvania heard that American Girl's Girl of the Year doll was a blonde ballet dancer named Isabelle. Upon hearing this, the little girl decided to launch a petition asking Mattel, owner of Amercan Girl to create a doll with disability instead. Since its launch, the petition has already picked up 15,000 signatures in less than a week.
"I want other girls to understand what it's like to be me," said Melissa as she explains the idea behind her petition - a joint venture between her and 17-year old sister, YingYing. Although American Girl sells wheelchairs, crutches and hearing aids for its dolls, Melissa was more after the creation of a doll with an actual story. "She was really disappointed," said YingYing. "Nothing against blonde dancers but they have already had two dancers, so that story has been told already." Upon seeing leaked photos of Isabelle on American Girl's Instagram account, YingYing, who is a Harvard freshman and youth activist asked her sister what sort of American Girl doll she would like to see.
"She said there weren't any disabled ones and that she'd emailed American Girl about it before but had never gotten a response." Immediately after, the sisters decided to petition Mattel - specifically the company's president, Jean McKenzie. Melissa also posted an accompanying YouTube video to further plead her case. "I've read all of the American Girl books and seen all of the movies, and I'm ready for an American girl who looks like me," Melissa expresses in the video. "Disabled girls are American Girls, too. We face challenges and overcome them every day."
