A California mother launched a line of Asian dolls to fill a gap on the toy shelf.
Elenor Mak said the idea for the company came to her last year when her 2-year-old daughter wanted a new doll, but she couldn’t find any that looked like her.
So Mak created a company called Jilly Bing to create a line of authentic dolls that not only celebrate Asian-American culture and heritage, but more accurately reflects the physical appearance of Asian children. Jilly is derived from the name of Mak’s daughter, Jillian, while "bing" comes from the Mandarin word for cookie.
The company's first doll was released this week. Mak shared her daughter's excitement when she saw the doll for the first time.
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“She just gasped in delight,” Mak said. “She’s like ‘Jilly, that’s me. She looks like me.’ She pointed at the doll’s black eyes, black hair. She says ‘Black, like me, like Jilly. She looks like me.’ She hugged the doll so hard.”
The company said it has already received nearly 1,000 pre-orders from people around the country.
The dolls will be available online starting on August 1.
