Sofia, an 8-year-old from the U.Okay. who was born with no left hand, says she’s grown up with out toys that resemble her. When Sofia wrote a letter to the corporate saying she didn’t really feel represented, Lego designers took motion.
And on BBC Breakfast final week, representatives from Lego Group shocked Sofia with Autumn – a brand new character with a lacking limb, similar to her.
Autumn is a part of a brand new line of characters within the Lego Pals Universe that the enormous toy firm first announced late final month. Sofia’s mom, Jessica, instructed BBC Breakfast that she and her daughter usually focus on “that our bodies come in several shapes and varieties and sizes and colours.” However then why don’t our toys, Sofia and her household puzzled?
And so they weren’t alone in feeling unrepresented – Lego Pals Universe design director Fenella Charity instructed BBC that the corporate has acquired many letters from youngsters similar to Sofia. “[W]hen we see these letters which were crafted so rigorously by the youngsters that write them, it’s actually inspiring to us, and undoubtedly makes us impressed to make a distinction,” Charity mentioned. “It makes what we’re doing actual.”
There are eight new “associates” within the universe, all with various pores and skin tones, whose background tales have them coming from totally different cultures and experiencing each seen or non-visible disabilities – together with the character with no left hand.
The corporate said in a launch that the aim with this new crop of toys is to encourage youngsters to be “higher associates to themselves and others whereas offering emotional and social growth by play, to assist them higher perceive individuality, variety, and the fashionable world.”
The brand new line might be out there for buy initially of the brand new 12 months. A tv particular concerning the characters will quickly comply with, Lego officers added within the launch. Like the brand new set of characters, the TV present – created in collaboration with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media – consists of numerous storylines which can be “relatable, inclusive, and reflective of the difficulties and experiences that youngsters face at present.”
To this point, Lego’s audience seems to be loving it – after coming face-to-face with Autumn, Sofia deemed the brand new toys “superb.”
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