Growing up I loved American Girl dolls, I loved buying a doll and dressing them up in all of the cutest outfits and even learning a little bit of history with them as well.

Through the years they have started to be more inclusive to girls who might be different from everyone else. They started including hearing aids as an add-on to the doll, you can get service dogs, eyeglasses, diabetes care kits, braces, arm crutches, and a wheelchair, they even have dolls with no hair, they really have come a long way.

And now they are starting to become even more inclusive!

Ivy Kimble a 4-year-old preschooler with Down Syndrome has been featured in advertisements in the October catalog and even on their website and social media page. It is rare that people with disabilities are featured in ads but it seems that times are changing and there is more representation in the ads that we see every single day.

This is amazing because there are so many little girls that can feel like they are represented and be like "Mommy that girl looks just like me" one example of that would be a little girl in a wheelchair that saw an Ulta ad with a model in a wheelchair she just stared at her as shown in a photo that has now gone viral.

While this is amazing because of the opportunities that these kids have, we still have a long way to go according to the Ad Age Less than 1 percent of ads represented people with disabilities in both speaking and non-speaking roles, Representation really matters when it comes to inclusion, more people with disabilities will feel included, I honestly wished that I had someone like me to look up to growing up. I mean kids today now have Julia and that is amazing however she would have been amazing to have been around when I was a child.

So thank you American Girl for making little girls who might be different like they are special, thank you for showing that you love it when people with disabilities buy your products, there are still some things I would love to include like maybe a doll with a disability with a story of her own. But this is a good start now its time to look forward to the future and hopefully, there will be more representation then.