Kids with disabilities so rarely get to see themselves represented — whether that's in movies, books, or even advertising. It's for this reason that little Oliver Garza-Pena of Arizona stopped in his tracks during a recent trip to Target. Looking back at him from an ad in the kids' aisle was another boy using a wheelchair, just like him. The toddler's mom, Demi Garza-Pena, shared the heartwarming moment on Facebook, where thousands of people have been touched by his story.
Ollie was born with caudal regression syndrome on March 7, 2018.
Speaking with CafeMom, Demi explained that her son's condition means "his spine stops halfway down about the bottom of his rib cage." Because of this, she said, his legs remain fixed in what she describes as a "Buddha-like position," so he cannot unbend them to walk.
"We found out while I was pregnant and he was born 12 weeks early, weighing only 2 lbs. 11 oz.," she continued. "He was a fighter and spent 12 weeks in the NICU before coming home!"
Demi said she was determined to raise her son just like "any other child," which meant "making sure he gets the same opportunities as everyone else."
That included giving her son every chance to be mobile, just like other kids his age.
"When he turned 1, we were fortunate enough to get a donated homemade wheelchair from a non-profit called Bellas Bumbas," Demi shares. "They make homemade chairs for kids before insurance typically covers them, because kids want to be mobile developmentally at 1 and 2 years old and you could tell Oliver was craving mobility."
In just six months, Oliver had mastered his donated wheelchair, and by Halloween 2019, Oliver finally got his "big boy chair."
"When he got his chair his whole world lit up!" Demi said. "He was fearless and unstoppable."
Demi says her soon-to-be 2-year-old is even excited by the prospect of taking on hills and slopes.
"I catch him throwing his arms out to the side like a bird," she told CafeMom, "and you can just see the freedom that his chair has given him."
Still, despite his incredible strides, Demi admitted that it can sometimes be hard for her son to be differently abled.
All of that changed, though, when the pair took their fateful trip to Target on February 4.
"Before we left [Target] I was cruising through to look for some clothes for Oliver when he grabbed his wheels and stopped me dead in his tracks," Demi recalled. "He is incredibly strong for a 2-year-old, so there was no budging his chair, and he spun around to see the boy. He never sees kids In chairs like him, and he was starstruck."
Oliver couldn't stop smiling when his mom explained that the boy in the ad had a chair just like his own.
So, not wanting to miss the moment, Demi pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of Ollie seeing someone like himself for the very first time. Later, she shared it on Ollie's World, a Facebook page she runs that's intended to raise awareness about her son's condition.
"I am so happy that other kids that pass through here with their parents, will see this!" Demi wrote in the post. "There is a lot of focus on representing diversity, but representing people with disabilities is just as important!"
It certainly is — and so far, her sweet little photo is reaching people far and wide.
To date, it's been shared more than 16,000 times, with over 700 people commenting to cheer on Ollie.
"That is awesome," wrote one woman. "He knows he is not alone in a wheelchair there are so many like him he is adorable!"
"Yay!" added someone else. "That is so wonderful and this picture of your cutie made me cry happy tears."
Others jumped in with their own heartwarming Target stories.
"Just in the past month, my teenage sister and my 8-year-old daughter have each had moments like this in Target," wrote another woman. "My 8-year-old daughter has lots of freckles and looked up at a Target model with dark skin and even more vibrant freckles and said, 'Look, Mommy, her freckles are pretty.'"
Demi says the display poster has made a lasting impression on her son.
The mom shares that she even caught little Oliver looking for the sign during another recent trip back to Target. She made a special point to show him where it was, which brought out a smile and a giggle.
"It warms my heart to see my son feel so happy," she tells us.
In a lucky twist of fate, Oliver's story even made its way back to the boy in the poster, after his mother spotted Demi's post.
"I’m that little boy in the Target display's Mom and this picture has me in tears!" wrote Ashley Catherine. "Tell Ollie he can do anything he puts his mind to!"
It turns out, that little boy in the poster is named Colton, and he lives clear across the country from Ollie, in Massachusetts. Following the photo of Oliver going viral, the two boys have connected and even struck up a friendship of sorts.
"The boys are sharing pictures and stories over [Facebook] messenger already," Demi explained.
Overall, Demi tells us that she hopes her son's story will help educate others on inclusion and acceptance.
It's a goal she had in mind when she first created Ollie's World after he was born, but there was no way she could have known that the response to their story would have been so big.
"The response has been mind blowing. We saw the beautiful moment and thought it was a great message," she said. "It has been viewed four million times, which is something we could have never dreamed of.
"We hope this can be a platform for Oliver to educate the world on including and acceptance," she added.
