Mom Starts Making Inclusive Dolls After She Couldn’t Find Any With Hearing Aids For Her Deaf Daughter
It’s very natural to want to play with toys that remind us of ourselves. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many dolls available for differently-abled children who have medical conditions and look different than others. 39-year-old British mother of two, Clare Tawell, decided to solve the issue and created the nonprofit organization Bright Ears UK which she uses to modify baby dolls to match children with medical conditions.
Clare’s biggest inspiration was her 4-year-old daughter Matilda who is deaf. “I became really disheartened when I couldn’t find a doll or any toy with hearing aids. It felt to me that society didn’t deem her important and therefore she shouldn’t be ‘acknowledged,’” she told Today.
The medical radiation technologist works on the dolls during her spare time and her goal is for every child with disabilities to play with toys that are just like them. She hopes to empower children and promote inclusiveness with her handmade dolls and accessories.
Clare Tawell founded Bright Ears UK and now modifies dolls to make them look like children with various medical conditions
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Clare has sold over 2k dolls since starting her toy-altering mission in 2017. She hopes that, in the future, children with medical conditions will be able to go into any shop and see dolls with cleft lips or hearing aids next to regular dolls. That way, kids will feel normal and won’t feel different from others.
The founder of Bright Ears UK has had her hands full of new orders recently and some of her products are temporarily sold out. So if you’ve spotted something that you desperately want, you’ll need to have a bit of patience. Clare also does custom requests whenever she has the time.
According to Clare, we live in a world that puts a lot of emphasis on ‘being normal’ and anyone that looks different from the norm might feel ‘abnormal.’ That can affect kids’ confidence in themselves and their self-esteem and create further problems down the line.
It’s not just individuals who buy Clare’s dolls. Schools and nurseries have also purchased them and use them when they talk about inclusiveness and learning not to judge people by how they look.
Incomplete Cleft & Blue hearing aids
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Partial cleft, purple hearing aids & mic-key feeding tube
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Left incomplete cleft lip
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Right incomplete cleft lip
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Left incomplete cleft lip
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Custom cleft
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Cleft lip doll
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Cleft lip repair, macrostomia cleft & blue hearing aids
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Insulin Pump & CGM Sensor
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Insulin Pump & CGM Sensor
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Haemanhioma (Strawberry Mark) Custom made
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Stoma & Mic-Key Feeding Tube
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Oxygen Nasal Cannula
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Macrostomia cleft
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Central Venous Line
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Tracheostomy
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Heart scar doll
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
PEG feeding tube dolls
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Woody & Jessie Hearing Aids & Cochlear Implants
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Princess hearing aid doll
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Christmas Elves with various medical conditions
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
Dolls with hearing aids
Image credits: Bright Ears UK
I;m gonna get a down vote but i think this is nice for younger kids who have no care in the world this makes them have a connection with their favorite doll i have a daughter with down syndrome which then affected her hearing personally i think she would love these dolls
Nothing in your comment warrants a downvote.
why is this own vote did you mean your comment would get a downvote
I'm so confused...what did you think worthy of a downvote? What you said was the WHOLE POINT of the article.
Lea S. lol
Lea S. what
Lea S. follower
I got one of these dolls for my deaf/mute best friend, and he immediately burst into tears. I originally thought it was because the doll was deaf, but he later informed me that he'd never gotten a present before.
I don't know how useful this is... these dolls look like they are for really young kids who may not be that sensitive to their physical differences (yet). Having really different looking toys might bring them unneccessary attention. Let kids have toys, no need to make everything into a social mission.
Yes your right it might even make the kid more comfordent as if a african americian girl or boy would feel more comfindent with a doll in their enthicity
I noticed I was different from the other kids in nursery, and I don't have a visible disability (I'm autistic). Children can be really mean, so I assume most kids with visible disabilities would experience even more bullying/notice they're different sooner or around the same time.
There's criticism of these dolls that bring up some points to ponder. I'm wondering if anyone with a visible disability would have wanted a doll that reflects their appearance.
Then they won't buy these dolls. And the kids who do want them will buy them.
A full facial cleft is a once in 300.000 live births occurrence. That's not gonna work ;) The hearing aid dolls are great and are also a permanent part of their appearance.
i had a (now fixed) visible disability when i was very little and was bullied bc of it. I would've hated a doll that reflects on that. The hearing aid dolls are better imo because it shows the "after", a solution and it's positive. A cleft, i'm afraid, is not. But that's just me.
not really its for kids not grown adults little kids would love playing with these dolls and because their use to their selfs they will think the dolls are normal
Thanks all for the responses. Issues of representation and accessibility interest me, in part because of my work on online training.
I;m gonna get a down vote but i think this is nice for younger kids who have no care in the world this makes them have a connection with their favorite doll i have a daughter with down syndrome which then affected her hearing personally i think she would love these dolls
Nothing in your comment warrants a downvote.
why is this own vote did you mean your comment would get a downvote
I'm so confused...what did you think worthy of a downvote? What you said was the WHOLE POINT of the article.
Lea S. lol
Lea S. what
Lea S. follower
I got one of these dolls for my deaf/mute best friend, and he immediately burst into tears. I originally thought it was because the doll was deaf, but he later informed me that he'd never gotten a present before.
I don't know how useful this is... these dolls look like they are for really young kids who may not be that sensitive to their physical differences (yet). Having really different looking toys might bring them unneccessary attention. Let kids have toys, no need to make everything into a social mission.
Yes your right it might even make the kid more comfordent as if a african americian girl or boy would feel more comfindent with a doll in their enthicity
I noticed I was different from the other kids in nursery, and I don't have a visible disability (I'm autistic). Children can be really mean, so I assume most kids with visible disabilities would experience even more bullying/notice they're different sooner or around the same time.
There's criticism of these dolls that bring up some points to ponder. I'm wondering if anyone with a visible disability would have wanted a doll that reflects their appearance.
Then they won't buy these dolls. And the kids who do want them will buy them.
A full facial cleft is a once in 300.000 live births occurrence. That's not gonna work ;) The hearing aid dolls are great and are also a permanent part of their appearance.
i had a (now fixed) visible disability when i was very little and was bullied bc of it. I would've hated a doll that reflects on that. The hearing aid dolls are better imo because it shows the "after", a solution and it's positive. A cleft, i'm afraid, is not. But that's just me.
not really its for kids not grown adults little kids would love playing with these dolls and because their use to their selfs they will think the dolls are normal
Thanks all for the responses. Issues of representation and accessibility interest me, in part because of my work on online training.