附近上门

Toy company has raised $1 million in seed funding to expand its line of children鈥檚 products, such as dolls and storybooks, that represent the beauty of diversity.

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founded the Detroit-based company in 2015 and launched the company鈥檚 first Black doll, Zoe, in 2019 that combines educational play experience with curly hair care.

鈥淎s a company, our goal is to be representation for all children,鈥� Jean-Charles, a Black woman, told 附近上门 News. 鈥淏efore Zoe, I could not find a doll that had the same hair texture and color of skin that I did. We are now building products for every child. They can see themselves, or their friends, in Zoe, and it also represents diverse play in early stages of development.鈥�

Much of her entrepreneurial journey was chronicled in 附近上门鈥檚 last August, but she said her company鈥檚 growth since 2019 鈥渉as been pretty crazy.鈥�

Healthy Roots partnered with campaign in 2019 to further the mission of celebrating positive images among Black women. Each doll came with a curly hair kit featuring P&G鈥檚 hair care line, My Black Is Beautiful Golden Milk Collection.

鈥淭he partnership was intentionally mission alignment, and not about getting into stores,鈥� Jean-Charles said. 鈥淲e also launched a hair care line with it.鈥�

The company鈥檚 current product lineup includes Zoe, which retails for $79.99 on , as well as clothing and accessories for her.

Healthy Roots鈥� seed funding was led by , which was joined by , , , , and a group of individuals, including . The startup has now raised a total of $1.5 million, which includes funds from grants, pitch competitions, accelerator programs and crowdfunding, Jean-Charles said.

, a principal at Backstage Capital, said in an interview that she met Jean-Charles during the firm鈥檚 Backstage Accelerator program and was one of Healthy Roots鈥� first investors.

“We鈥檝e seen her since Day One be heads down and focused on the product,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淣ow we are seeing that journey, and it has been cool to be a part of it.鈥�

She said Healthy Roots 鈥渉its us all personally,鈥� because previously there were hardly any Black dolls, and those that were nominally Black often had Caucasian features. Large brands tried to address the representation, but did not do it authentically, Davis added

鈥淵elitsa is phenomenal and builds representation in a product,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he future of this country will be a minority majority, so she is building for the future customer. She is going to be at a scalable size, meeting them where they are 鈥� more diverse.鈥�

Jean-Charles said she intends to use the funding to meet demand, expand the company鈥檚 brand and product offering to more than dolls, and continue to focus on the customer base. While she does not have specific products in mind yet, she aims to create all types of products representing our multicultural world.

鈥淲e have never had a year where we consistently offered the product, then COVID happened, and brand recognition grew over the summer during Black Lives Matter,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e ended up going viral and selling out, and we have not been able to keep Zoe in stock.鈥�

Going forward, Jean-Charles said there are so many things to achieve toward 鈥渢otal doll domination,鈥� including her goal of representation in the toy aisle and with hair play.

Healthy Roots Dolls has a small team of under 10 people, but she would like to grow there, bringing on talent with skill sets in creative, marketing and technical, as well as a passion for the work the company is doing, she said.

鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to creating more value for our customers and listening to them to see what they like so we can design for the future,鈥� Jean-Charles added.

Feature photo of Yelitsa Jean-Charles and Zoe courtesy of Nneka Julia.
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