American Girl's Terrific New Diabetes Care Kit for Dolls - Now Available!
Twitter summary: American Girl adds diabetes care kit to its doll accessories
Two years after an 11-year-old girl newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes created a petition on Change.org asking American Girl to create “diabetic accessories” for American Girl dolls, the company has released a “diabetes care kit” for its line of “Truly Me” dolls. The $24 set, which includes a toy glucose monitor, an insulin pump and pen, glucose tablets, a medical ID bracelet and more, is a welcome addition to American Girl’s expanding set of accessories for dolls that are designed to help girls express themselves. According to the Huffington Post, American Girl also sells “wheelchairs, hearing aids, allergy-free lunches, service dogs, and dolls without hair,” representing other needs children might have and conditions they may face. In the future, we even wonder if the doll’s glucose meter could have customizable blood glucose readings to reflect the changing nature of glucose levels in people with diabetes!
While the diabetes care kit's description doesn’t specify whether it is explicitly designed for girls with type 1 diabetes, the medical ID bracelet included does indicate “Type 1 Diabetes.” Although the incidence of type 1 diabetes is much greater in children than that of type 2 diabetes (in 2009, it was estimated that there were over 18,000 children newly diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S., compared to 5,000 children newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes), we can’t ignore the rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes in children the last 15 years, in tandem with the childhood obesity epidemic. We'd love to see a doll that also incorporates type 2 diabetes in the future.
A special thank you to Dr. Nicole Johnson for helping influence American Girl to make this possible! -NK
Photo Credit: Ana Picazo via Carb DM