Doll Manufacturing Start-Up Luvuthando Dolls Seeks To Create Products That Will Stimulate Children’s Imagination
Doll Manufacturing Start-Up Luvuthando Dolls Seeks To Create Products That Will Stimulate Children’s Imagination. Luvuthando Dolls creates a wonder-space where children have a free passport to be perfectly imperfect and encourage them to unleash their inner warriors. The company’s dolls promote self-confidence, self-acceptance and diversity. The company encourages the youth to embrace who they are and where they come from. It wants them to see that life has endless possibilities and that they are the crafters of their own destinies.
Luvuthando Dolls was born early 2018 when Yolanda Y’awa, the owner, took a trip down memory lane. She remembers being traumatised as a child as she was teased for being too dark skinned. After some research a couple of years ago, she saw how the black child, how the child of colour experienced challenges as he/she would be made feel inadequate or less beautiful because of the colour of her skin or the type of his/her hair. She also discovered that there was less representation in the toy industry for dolls of colour.
Y’awa is passionate about the black child / child of colour and she wanted to create a product that will not only be fun but inspiring. “Growing up I never had a doll, though I secretly hoped for one. In those days, there were only white dolls available and that is what was classified as beauty. With not having a doll, the next best thing was an orange fluffy owl that became my friend, my vault and model, since I was overflowing with creativity from a tender age” said Y’awa on the company’s website.
So, end of December 2017 she came across doll make-over YouTube videos and she was hooked. She then collected dolls from second-hand markets but though they were pretty, they were white., Y’awa then, tried to re-colour one Barbie doll brown but she didn’t like the end result.
After some research online, she decided to find black doll manufacturers and she was in luck and from there onwards she designed the clothing and accessories form her three new black dolls with afro-hair, styled the dolls, did a home photoshoot, posted them on social media. The response was absolutely amazing and it was a validation that this could not only be a viable business but she will be making a difference in the world, in a small way.
