Canadian mom creates the most realistic black dolls you'll ever see

A Canadian mother of five is diversifying the way we see dolls.

Queen Cee, from Hamilton, Ont., has always had regular discussions with her children about the importance of diversity and culture. But when it came time to purchase a doll for her young daughter, she found it difficult to find one that resembled her.

“I was basically led to customize because as much as people will say, ‘Oh there’s black dolls here in Canada, you just have to go to the stores’ — well, there’s not,” Queen said in an interview with Huffington Post Canada. “There’s maybe one out of a slew of other dolls that are not black or reflective of someone of ethnicity.”

According to Cee, a girl should be able to have a doll and create the character that she wants, which is “what her story is.” The community activist created a crowdfunding source to produce the Herstory doll line, a collection of dolls that feature different skin colours, hairstyles, even hair textures, to represent the distinctive backgrounds of African descent.

Funding support was even pushed for by actress Meagan Good, whose is admittedly obsessed with the custom artwork.

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“Being in Canada, even people who are biracial or racially mixed, you can’t tell by someone’s skin tone where they’re from. You have the black doll, [and you assume] they’re either from somewhere in Africa or they’re African-American,” Cee said in her interview.

“But what about the African-Canadian, what about the people who are black in Germany or black in the U.K., Netherlands and Brazil? We’re all across the world.”

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The line was meant to inspire creativity and promote self-esteem and representation in children. Although she didn’t reach her goal in her recent kickstarter campaign, Cee creates dolls on commission and has even set up an Etsy shop to take orders. Whatever tone your skin is, she wants to celebrate the beauty of diversity through these dolls — because representation not only matters, it’s needed.

“I will find another way to get the funding because I believe in my creative @herstorydoll movement,” Cee stated in her post.

We’re loving her vision and hoping to see a lot more of her work!

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