This video of Emma Bennett, receiving the best gift of a doll just like her, is blowing up the internet.

Can I say: I am thrilled that something as beautiful as this awesome moment caught on video, is what’s going viral right now, instead of some hate-filled, violent video, or yet another video celebrating debauchery and ignorance?

The fact that people are sharing and watching this all over right now warms my heart. Emma is a young girl in Houston, Texas who has lived her life with a prosthetic leg. Her parents managed to find a company in A Step Ahead Prosthetics, who would affix an America Girl doll with a prosthetic just like Emma’s.

The video shows the beautiful moment when Emma sees and realizes she finally has a doll that looks just like her.

Posted by her mother, Courtney Bennett, the short video shows the family giving Emma her gift, and her opening the present. A note delivered with the doll reads: “After a few weeks of training, she is ready to go home and lead a life without limitations with you.”

Priceless.

Still crying, Emma hugged her new toy, saying: “Thank you for making a doll like me.” Heart melts, tears flow, and I again have an immense love for my fellow humans. It’s moments like this which restore my faith in us.

This just resonates so deeply with my personal belief that something so small—like having a doll that looks like you—is so impactful for our children. I grew up half-brown with dark hair and eyes in an era of Barbie and only Barbie, and her flat-chested, un-curvy kid sister, wondering when I was going to look like Barbie. I remember what it felt like to wonder why some people (models) were so beautiful and I wasn’t. What their dolls look like is a powerful subliminal message for our young girls, one that is often overlooked.

Thank you to Emma and her family for being a ray of sunlight and joy in a world so often dark, and for being a reminder that no matter our situation in life, we can find a place of gratitude and joy to live in. And, thank you for sharing your moment so we can spread awareness of how crucial something like this is.

 

Author: Lindsay Carricarte

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Image: Youtube