Walking down the toy aisle should be a delightful treat for a young child. Seeing all of the toys displayed in their colorful boxes, sparks joy, curiosity, and imagination. But if none of the toys you see reflect you, the toy aisle sometimes feels a bit less exciting and enjoyable.
That was the case for one little Mississippi boy named Archer. The 5-year-old Black boy with red hair rarely sees himself reflected in the figurines on the shelves. Thankfully, his mom Niki Coffman did something about it.
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Niki said when her son doesn't see toys that reflect him, he notices it.
“When there aren’t toys like him, he asks why,” Niki told TODAY.com. Archer himself said that when he doesn’t see toys that reflect his likeness, it feels “not good.”
“Everyone should have that,” he explains. “It makes them happy.” Thankfully, there were some people at toy manufacturer Fisher-Price who worked to give some of that happiness to Archer in a special and memorable way.
Niki is always searching for diverse toys, books, and art supplies.
Niki and her husband Andrew, who are white, adopted Archer shortly after he was born to his mother KKay, who the family calls his “first mom.” In the five years Niki has spent raising him, she has made a conscious effort to search for toys, books, and holiday decorations that look like her son. When a company provides diverse representation, Niki writes letters of thanks, and when they don’t, she asks them to do better.
For Archer’s fifth birthday, Niki asked people to donate diverse toys, books, and art supplies to Archer’s predominately white school. Many of the donations came from Fisher-Price’s Little People line of figurines. They feature children of different skin tones, hair textures, and physical abilities.
Niki wrote to Fisher-Price. “[I] thanked them profusely for the work they were doing and then left a P.S. that said something like: ‘If you ever decided to design a Little Person with brown skin and red hair, please let us know.'”
Fisher-Price made sure to gift Archer with something special.
Shortly after she sent her note, she received a response from Gary Weber, the vice president of design at Fisher-Price. “Your story has been shared with everyone who worked on the Little People figures you mentioned, and to say that it made our day would be an understatement,” Weber wrote.
“You and Archer have inspired us! We know that when kids play with Little People they are playing out scenarios they see in the world around them, and feeling like they are a part of that world is critical.”
Niki was brought to tears by the gesture.
Gary concluded the correspondence asking Niki for her address so that the company could make sure Archer and his school have the full representation of the Little People figures. Then on Tuesday, May 23, Niki received a special box. Inside, there was a beautifully printed letter, signed by employees of the company. But most importantly, there were boxes that had Archer figurines in them.
Niki was touched by the effort that went into creating this version of her boy. “They got the whole outfit perfect — the sweater, the green shorts, his little loafers. They got his hair perfect,” Niki said. “The thing that just keeps blowing my mind is the number of people who obviously worked on this … it’s hard to describe how impactful it feels, to think of people I don’t know in boardrooms somewhere looking at a picture of my kid and thinking: ‘What else can we do?’ Because as a mom I think about that every day: How else can I smooth the path for him?”
Niki said the toy is a lot more than that.
If Niki was touched by the gesture, Archer was ecstatic. Niki recounted the moment. “I said, ‘Archer, they made you.’ His little jaw dropped. He snatched the box out of my hands … whipped around and shouted: ‘It’s me! It’s me!'” she added.
“He showed everyone. He didn’t put [the toy] down all day.” Niki told TODAY.com. Fisher-Price’s gesture was more than just a toy to her family. “I need them to have toys and and books that look like Archer, because that’s how they understand that brown skin isn’t less than,” she said.
“And I’m in a really unique position as a white woman with a Black kid to help people understand why representation matters. Black parents are tired and they already know it’s important.”
