Representation and American Girl Doll
It’s been a wild month.
American Girl dropped the new Eid al-fitr outfit on their website and their store shelves, and I spent an entire month being interviewed by Chicago local news stations, Muslim organizations and magazines and by my own company that I work for. This was mostly unexpected, as I planned to take part in a press release through CAIR-Chicago to facilitate announcing and promoting the Eid outfit that I was blessed to take part in consulting on. I thought it might result in a phone call from WGN; I even joked about it with my kids. But I didn’t expect every local news outlet to call me- and then some. I almost turned them all down. It was a bit overwhelming to suddenly have my phone blowing up all over the place. But ultimately, I knew I had to strike while the iron was hot–and take these opportunities to promote the representation of Muslims in the American Girl Doll line. (Yes!!!)
I am grateful for every millisecond of this experience. It’s only by God’s will that I’ve been able to take part and perhaps influence positive change in some small way. I’m not going to repeat the story as it has been told a zillion times in the links below.
I will say that the media really obsessed about the fact that I requested Muslim representation when my daughter was 8 and she is now 20. I mean- they really obsessed about this. I guess that is what makes a “news story” versus marketing or selling a product. I get it.
I mostly created this post so that I can store all of the primary links in one place. I will add to it as there is more coming! Yes— more is coming!
Thank you for the support to my family, friends, acquaintances, business partners, activist mentors and media partners. And thank you to American Girl and Mattel. You all rock!
Links Below!
Buy the Eid al-fitr outfit here and/or leave a review!
CAIR-Chicago Press Release Celebrating Muslim Representation in the American Girl Doll Line
Daily Herald Article and Video Interview
WGN Evening News with Micah Materre
Guest Speaker with the Eid Holiday Coalition
My article in American Muslim Today
Columbia College student Op-Ed
WCIU: Real Chicagoans Episode 10
Islamic Horizons Magazine (pgs 28-39)
My exhibit at the Elmhurst History Museum
Image from Daily Herald
