This Mom Wants to Make Sure That Party Supplies Represent All Kinds of Kids

photo: Craft My Occasion via Kickstarter

Imagine that it’s your child’s birthday and you’re planning a big bash to celebrate. You head out to the party store (or go online) to buy enough paper plates, napkins and cups to keep the kids eating pizza, chips and cake, cake and more cake. Now imagine that the cartoon characters on the pint-sized paper products look nothing like your child. We’re not talking about trying to find an identical twin image here. Nope. We’re talking about birthday-ware that celebrates children of color.

When Lynnette Abbott, mom and owner of event planning company Craft My Occasion, was planning her own kiddo’s party, she noticed that none of the ready-made party supplies looked like her five-year-old daughter Anyah.

With a bevy of blond, blue-eyed party supplies out there, the mama wasn’t seeing anything that resembled her little girl. So she took to the drawing board (literally) and created her own design, along with graphic designer Ana Rako — a mermaid of color. In order to get her designs off the ground, Abbott started a Kickstarter campaign.

On her Kickstarter page, Abbott writes, “I chose a mermaid as our first design because I have been unable to find a brown-skinned mermaid anywhere.” She goes on to add, “I want my daughter, and every brown little girl on this planet to feel beautiful, acknowledged and loved each time they look at our party products and see themselves smiling back.”

Abbott proves that no one should sit back and just wait for someone else to make a change. She’s a change-maker who is making a difference in a major way!

What kid’s product would you like to change or create differently? Tell us in the comments below.