Mom Asks Fisher-Price To Make Toy Resembling Her Son, And It Wonderfully Obliges
Image via Mattel
It’s important that kids feel seen and validated. On the part of toy companies, they’ve been dialing up on their diversity efforts in hopes of building representation for every child.
Now, Archer “Archie” Coffman is one of them. The five-year-old has never really resonated with a toy figure due to his unique looks—Archer has brown skin and red hair. He “notices” when he walks around a toy store and doesn’t see the slightest extension of himself, says his mom, Niki Coffman.
The mother says Archer, who was adopted soon after he was born, has a habit of asking why when other children are reflected in the appearances of toys, but not him.
On Archer’s fifth birthday, Niki Coffman requested donations of diverse and inclusive toys and stationery to be given to his predominantly white preschool. As it turned out, many of those gifts comprised Fisher-Price’s Little People, a collection that envisions children of all walks of life.
While grateful for the representation Little People provided, Coffman couldn’t find anything like Archer. She decided to write a thoughtful letter to Fisher-Price thanking it for its work, but left a P.S. that read something along the lines of: “If you ever decided to design a Little Person with brown skin and red hair, please let us know.”
Surprisingly, she got a response—from Fisher-Price’s Vice President of Design himself, Gary Weber.
Weber revealed that Archer’s story had been shared with everyone charged with coming up with Little People figures, “and to say that it made our day would be an understatement,” he replied, as quoted in an exclusive piece by TODAY.
“You and Archer have inspired us!” Weber continued. He acknowledged the importance of kids being able to picture themselves as part of the world around them.
And here’s the best part: Archer now has a Little Person that looks just like him!
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Like the five-year-old, this custom toy has dark skin and red hair. Fisher-Price even got his entire outfit down, from his sweater to green shorts and loafers. The mini-me’s hair was “perfect” too, his mother says.
Coffman recounts that she cried when she opened the box, and proudly called out to her son to take a look. “His little jaw dropped,” she mentions.
Alongside the toy was a framed letter from The Little People team, signed by everyone in the department.
Archer could barely contain his excitement. According to his mother, he snatched the box from her and exclaimed: “It’s me! It’s me!” and didn’t put the figure down the whole day.
Coffman recognizes the work and effort put in, plus the number of approvals required internally, to make the Archer toy a reality.
Interestingly, it seems that everyone on the Little People team now owns a Little Archer. Coffman says a Fisher-Price employee sent her an Instagram message saying that there’s an Archer toy sitting on their desk, and that the company “literally ordered one for each of their staff.”
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[via Southern Living and TODAY, images via various sources]
