Lego, a Danish toy company, released a new set of toys depicting children with disabilities, including toys with missing limbs and Down’s syndrome (a genetic disorder which also causes distinct facial disorder). The company stated that they attempted to work on the concept of reflecting a child’s personality in toys that they play with, the Telegraph reported.
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“The new sets and series will feature characters with limb difference, Down’s syndrome, anxiety, vitiligo, and a dog with a wheelchair,” the company stated.
Lego further stated that their research results showed 75% of children feel a “lack of toys with characters that represent them,” and around 80% of children wish to have toys that “look like them and reflect their personality.”
The toys are designed in such a way that they depict mental illness and physical disabilities. The new collection of Lego Friends’ characters is an attempt to represent diversity, according to the company. Head of product for Lego Friends’ Tracie Chiarella said, “We understand that children want the characters they encounter to be more like the diverse personalities they meet in real life.”
The firm said that these new generation toys have been created to “celebrate diverse friendships in the modern world.” Enhancing the perspectives of children on physical disabilities, ethnicity and mental health was also targeted in this idea of toys.
The toys also include the addition of figurines of different skin tones, cultures, physical and non-visible disabilities, as well as behavioural traits. A condition in which white patches develop on the skin because of a lack of the pigment melanin is also represented among the new set of toys.