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THE POWER OF INVESTING IN OUR YOUTH
JOSH HOLLIN
When Zoe Terry stepped out onto the stage of a TEDxYouth@Miami conference to tell her story, she was only nine years old.
She had a lot to say about how it felt to be bullied as a little girl for the brown color of her skin and her puffy hair. After suffering a stroke as a toddler, she was bullied at age five for not being very coordinated. Instead of giving in to the bullies, Zoe had the idea to encourage herself and others just like her to know how beautiful she and they really are. Her brainstorm was to create her own enterprise to get brown-skinned dolls into the hands of girls like herself and put smiles on their faces. Thus, Zoe’s Dolls—of which she is the CEO and founder—was born.
Zoe’s mother recalls the challenge that she had always encountered in finding dolls that resembled her daughter in any way. Most of them, she explained, were similar to white dolls in their features and appearance, only looking as if they had brown paint covering them. Zoe’s passion was not only to get dolls into the hands of other girls of color but also to take a powerful stand against bullies.
Her company and her success as a young entrepreneur helped her create a platform for her message. “I wanted to let little brown girls know that their image is beautiful no matter what anyone else says,” Zoe recalls.
In her TEDx Talk and subsequent media interviews, there’s a statement she asks audiences to repeat. “Say ‘I’m beautiful!’” Zoe directs the girls listening to her.
“I’m beautiful!” they respond in a triumphant chorus, almost like a call-and-response in church.
Having her own doll that looks like her is proof, Zoe smiles. “I am beautiful. Being different is not bad. My school helped me know that. My mom helped me know that. So that is when I got my idea to turn my bad situation into a good situation. I just wanted to make a difference.”
Her policy is for every doll sold, she gives a doll to a girl in need. Between 2016 and 2020, Zoe’s Dolls gave away twenty thousand dolls across the United States, Haiti, Cuba, and countries across Africa.
Over Christmases past, Zoe has partnered with celebrities like Serena Williams and sponsors who have enabled her to deliver Zoe’s Dolls to girls in various South Florida neighborhoods near where she is growing up. Their reactions are priceless.
Zoe was delighted, recalling, “One girl I gave a doll to, she named her Ms. Cocoa. She had darker skin, and the doll had darker skin like her, so it really, really looked like her, and she was so excited. I remember she gave me the biggest hug, and she was just so happy that she finally got a doll in her image.”
There are messages in the boxes that Zoe’s Dolls come in. In the city of Miami Gardens, Florida, one recipient joyfully read her note aloud. “It says, ‘I’m beautiful and I’m loved.’” A different recipient kept staring at her own doll. Finally, she explained, “I feel like it’s me in a box.”
When Zoe was honored with the 2017 Nickelodeon HALO Award—which stands for “helping and leading others”—Nick Cannon commended her. “You’re showing girls everywhere that the sky’s the limit,” he said, “not only through your work with Zoe’s Dolls but [by] becoming the youngest HALO honoree ever.”
Zoe has even received grants to hold trainings that help motivate other “girlpreneurs” pursuing their paths as change-makers.
Zoe has powerful and kind words of advice. “Believe in yourself,” she tells others of all ages, even when no one else does. “Believe in yourself and just don’t give up. When you see a problem, fix it. Just fix it, and if you keep at it, you will have a business.”
The advice that Zoe’s mom has added to that is also important. All along, she insisted that Zoe call all the shots, and she asserts that if parents want to see their kids flourish, the kindest, most important thing they can do is just to listen, be supportive when asked, and get out of the way.
It’s true that by letting kids find their own wings, they may run the risk of falling. Or they may just fly.
This story is proof that there is no age requirement to make a difference in the world. It is so important that children see themselves in the toys that they play with, and Zoe’s Dolls provides that representation for so many young girls across the world. Josh’s story also reminds us how beautiful we all really are; so why not start embracing your beauty today? Josh, you are beautiful. And reader, you are, too. Because baby, you were born this way! I challenge you to tell three people they’re beautiful, and while you’re at it, check out Zoe’s Dolls to support Zoe in her mission to remind brown girls that their skin is beautiful, too.
