This mom wrote a thank you note to American Girl Dolls for displaying dolls without hair

It’s so important for young kids to have toys that look like them — a point that was reinforced by the letter Meredith Bailey, a mom from Boston, wrote on Facebook this past Tuesday. She wrote the thank you note to the company that makes American Girl Dolls, because she and her daughter Mia were shopping in a store in Natick and noticed that a doll who didn’t have any hair was on display.

This was an important thing for Mia, who was diagnosed with alopecia at the age of four years old. She had been given an American Girl Doll with no hair for Christmas last year, which she loved, but she had noticed that there were none of that particular doll on display in the store — when she asked her mother why, she didn’t really have an answer to give. This brings to light the issue of representation, and why it’s important for kids to see characters that look like them in media and on the shelves of toy stores.

Meredith was thankful that the doll was on display, and wrote the following post on the American Girl Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphoto.php%3Ffbid%3D10154440466969369%26set%3Do.175829615793540%26type%3D3&width=500

The full text says:

It has 18k reactions so far, and nearly 3k shares. We’re so glad Mia got the chance to see herself represented in the store.