A Bay Area mother launched a line of Asian dolls in San Francisco Sunday to fill a gap on the toy shelf.
Elenor Mak said the idea for the company came to her last year when her daughter wanted a new doll, but couldn’t find any that looked like her.
So Mak created a company called Jilly Bing to create a line of dolls that resemble real Asian-American children. Jilly is derived from the name of Mak’s daughter, Jillian, while bing comes from the Mandarin word for cookie.
At the San Francisco launch party today, Mak described excitement from the children in attendance.
“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.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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