One Dear World Hearty Hope - Multicultural Doll Review (12m+) Sent for review.

One Dear World are a company I approached because I love their ethos. They create dolls that genuinely represent a diverse range of children - boys and girls from different backgrounds, with different skin tones and hair colours, and One Dear World are also crowd-funding to extend the range to include dolls with disabilities.

We've been sent a doll for review and one of the Fair Trade handmade outfits, which I'll be passing on to a little girl who I know will really appreciate it...

Our doll is Hearty Hope, and her backstory is that she was born in Accra, Ghana and moved to London with her parents. The packaging is mostly unbleached card and she comes with her own little passport. She's 32cm tall and not heavy to hold.

She has beautiful curly hair and dark skin, and when she arrived was wearing a really pretty embroidered white sundress - with bloomers underneath to protect her modesty! The clothes are removable and it was really easy to change Hope.

Her soft body bends in all ways and her dress has a long velcro-style fastening, so even young children will be able to change her alone. Practising their dressing skills and building finger strength and dexterity.

One Dear World have a range of different Fair Trade handmade cultural clothing available for your dolls. The dress I've been sent was made in Sri Lanka and is a gorgeous orange and red. It suits her beautifully and is very well made. Seams are finished neatly and oversewn, there are no loose threads and the quality is excellent.

In a previous life I've been a childminder and I also worked with deaf nursery-aged children, as well as raising our own large family. I've spent many hours searching for dolls to represent children in my care, and people we know or see around us. Back in the 90's unless you wanted blonde, white skinned female dolls you pretty much had one option, which was a white doll tinted to have darker skin.

Thankfully it's now 2019 and thanks to companies such as One Dear World, far more young children can have a doll who is like them. They can feel valued and appreciate their own beauty and differences, becoming more confident about who they are.

One Dear World currently have 4 different dolls called Hope, Parth, Lea and Jun, each with their own heritage and 9 multicultural, Fair Trade outfits.

I'm impressed. The quality is all there and the Fair Trade outfits are spot on and beautifully made. The range is colourful, attractive and the dolls themselves are perfect for little hands to hold, and for small people to fall asleep with. (Or big lads to have a sneaky play with while no-one is watching... ).

One Dear World dolls currently retail at £21.99rrp and are suitable for children aged 12months and over. Outfits cost £11-17 and are recommended for children 2 years and over. Find out more about all of the dolls and the other products available (including t-shirts) on the One Dear World website. 

One Dear World have also offered a doll and an outfit to give away to one of my readers during my Christmas Present Giveaways in November. You can find my current UK giveaways on my Giveaways page... 

We were sent Hope and her orange/red dress for review.