A mum who set up a doll company because her daughter couldn't find one that looked like her hopes to inspire young girls of colour with her creations. Olivia Thompson, 32, from Leeds, created Akila Dolls in 2020.
She was inspired to do so because her 10-year-old daughter Amira, who is mixed-race and has ADHD and autism, became upset that there were no dolls in the shops that looked like her. The first prototype was a doll called Bessie, which was based on the first female aviation pilot, Bessie Coleman.
Ms Thompson told the PA news agency: "I want my dolls to be educational. So, the concept is that every doll will be named after a figure in history and I tried to choose people in history that we don’t tend to learn about within school.
