Delaney Skye, 15 months old, is fascinated by Disney princesses, as tots tend to be. Delaney has Down syndrome, and her mom decided it would be awesome for her daughter to see a princess who looks like her. So Keston Ott-Dahl started a petition on Care2.com, and it’s racked up more than 37,000 signatures from around the world so far.
“When I see her mesmerized by Disney princesses, it breaks my heart to know she has no role models like herself,” Ott-Dahl told the Los Angeles Daily News. Another goal she has in mind: to help people be more welcoming to kids like her little girl. As she noted in the petition,
“Disney does a great job of depicting right from wrong. It has long provided wonderful moral lessons that teach our children to be good people…. What wonderful lessons of diversity, compassion and acceptance Disney could teach our kids if they promoted disabled characters as heroes and heroines in their beloved movies!”
Ott-Dahl noted that the last Disney character to have a Down-like disability was in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which came out 18 years ago. There’s also Dopey, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, who does not verbally communicate (although his name sure doesn’t flatter people with speech challenges). Some say that Nemo, with his damaged fin, has a disability.
As a mom of a kid with cerebral palsy, I’ve wondered myself about a potential Disney character with foot braces. Last year, renditions by artist aleXsandro Palombo of Disney princesses who were limb-different, in wheelchairs and using crutches went viral. Ott-Dahl imagines that a Disney princess with Down syndrome would, she said, “talk a little differently” and “look different.”
And that would be a great thing.
From my other blog:
The amazing two words a kid said about my son with special needs
One extra chromosome does not define people with Down’s syndrome
On not letting your kid’s obsessions get to you
Image source: Care2.com