10-Year-Old Girl Receives American Girl Doll With Prosthetic Leg 'Like Me' In Heartwarming Video
American Girl® dolls have been a childhood staple for decades, with more than 153 million sold since 1986. Part of what makes them so popular is the option to customize dolls to look just like their owners. And for Courtney Fletcher Bennett's 10-year-old daughter Emma, that's a big deal.
Unlike other girls her age, Emma was born with a rare birth defect and has worn a prosthetic right leg for most of her life. Bennett reached out to A Step Ahead Prosthetics to add a pink prosthetic to Emma's American girl doll, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reported — and the little girl was overjoyed. "You’ve got to be kidding me,” Emma said, beginning to cry and hug the doll “It’s got a leg like me!”
Even the doll's traits were tailored to Emma.
“After a few weeks of training to walk and run in her new prosthetic, she is ready to go home and live her life without limitations like you,” her mother read as she recorded Emma's reaction. And Emma's father, Justin Bennett, couldn't agree more. He told KHOU his daughter swims, plays soccer and other sports, like volleyball, the same as any other child.
According to A Step Ahead's website, the company has gotten quite a bit of attention lately for this kind of customization. They design the doll prosthetics alongside their 'real' ones in a variety of colors, and they don't charge their customers for it either. They believe "it is absolutely crucial to boost the self-confidence, self-esteem, and feelings of inclusion for little girls with limb loss, and that something as small as a doll that resembles them can have a profound effect on their mental and physical well-being."
Emma's parents hope the video of their daughter, which has gone viral, will remind other toy manufacturers how worthwhile it is to create dolls that reflect children from all walks of life; representation matters.
“Thank you for making a doll like me,” Emma said.