This woman makes toys that help kids with disabilities feel less alone

When Amy Jandrisevits worked as a social worker in a paediatric oncology unit, she quickly learned how important dolls were for children coping with serious illness.

Play therapy was a vital tool but something about it didn’t sit right with her.

“The dolls had long eyelashes, full heads of hair, and perfect smiles,” she recalls. “They looked nothing like the kids holding them.”

That disconnect planted a seed.

Today, Amy is the founder of A Doll Like Me, a nonprofit that handcrafts dolls to reflect the unique physical characteristics of children with disabilities and medical conditions, from limb differences and albinism to surgical scars, burns, and birthmarks.

What started as a personal project has now become a global movement centred on one powerful belief: every child deserves to see themselves represented just as they are.

Dolls that validate, not "fix"

In a world where children with disabilities are often made to feel invisible, Amy’s work offers more than just toys. It offers belonging.

Each doll is thoughtfully made to match the child receiving it, not in a caricatured or exaggerated way, but with dignity, detail, and care.

“These kids don’t need to be ‘fixed,” Amy says. “They’re already whole. What they need is representation.”

The message is clear: children with disabilities are not broken: they are beautiful, and they deserve to be seen.

From passion project to nonprofit mission

Amy’s first custom doll was made for a young girl who had lost her leg.

When the child saw the doll, she whispered, “She’s just like me.” That single sentence ignited what would become A Doll Like Me.

Initially, Amy funded the project on her own and charged a fee for each custom doll. But she soon realized that many families couldn’t afford the cost.

So, she started a GoFundMe campaign to ensure that no child would miss out on a doll that could change the way they saw themselves. As of now, she’s raised over $23,000 and hopes to reach her $25,000 goal to formally register the project as a nonprofit.

Each doll costs around $100 to make. Amy doesn’t cut corners because, as she puts it, “You can’t put a price on self-worth.”

A Doll Like Me now works with children's hospitals across the US to identify children who would benefit from receiving a personalised doll.

Paediatricians and child life specialists recognise the psychological value of these dolls, not just in building self-esteem, but also in helping children process trauma, grief, and identity.

Amy sees it as emotional medicine.

“Mental health is health. If a doll can make a child feel less alone, more confident, or simply smile on a hard day, that’s everything.”

One doll, one child, one story at a time

Each doll Amy makes is different, just like the kids who receive them.

She listens to parents’ stories, studies photographs, and pays attention to details that matter: a favourite colour, hairstyle, tiny brace, scar that tells a story.

One doll might have a feeding tube. Another might have a birthmark shaped like a heart.

The reactions are powerful.

Videos on the A Doll Like Me Facebook page capture tearful parents, laughing kids, and quiet moments of awe as children recognise themselves in their new dolls.

In a world that often sidelines disability, A Doll Like Me is a soft but powerful revolution.

It affirms that representation isn’t just a matter of policy or entertainment, that it starts early. In childhood. In play. In toys that tell the truth.

As Amy puts it, “These dolls are a way to say, ‘You are perfect just the way you are.’ And every child deserves to hear that.”