Tag: diversity

Alleviating Obstacles to Sponsorship

Posted on by robbie

Officially, a family can sponsor the person who helps raise their children for a green card, which allows that person to live and work in the United States. But the aging American immigration system has gotten in the way, resulting in a broken process in which domestic caregivers who do seek citizenship almost always get rejected.
New York City immigration attorney Charles Goldsmith says that if someone approaches his office seeking to sponsor the person watching their child, nine times out of 10 he doesn’t take the case because “it’ll go nowhere.”
As a result, the vast majority of these workers are employed illegally, making them vulnerable to low pay, workplace abuse and an inability to seek out care if hurt on the job. Families that hire undocumented immigrants are also committing tax fraud if they pay under the table.
“It’s a burden for parents,” says Marcia Hall, president of the International Nannies Association. “There are so many families that don’t understand [the laws] and how they can get in trouble if they don’t abide by them.”
Conservative lawmakers believe the answer to this situation is to focus solely on American workers. But many immigration experts say the system must be modernized for today’s workforce.

Make it more affordable

In general, people who want to sponsor a domestic worker shell out $5,000 to $10,000 — a hefty burden to many.
There are costly legal and governmental fees, plus the law requires parents to advertise in a newspaper (which can cost hundreds of dollars) to prove their child’s caregiver has distinct abilities that no other American worker has. “Advertising in print newspapers is utterly obsolete and passe,” says James Pittman, a Philadelphia-based immigration lawyer.
And what if a family and their childcare provider wanted to share the fees? Immigrants can reduce the costs by applying for a financial hardship waiver, but there’s little to help available for working parents.

Expedite the application process

Normally, it takes about eight months for the U.S. Department of Labor to process the first round (of at least three) of a childcare provider’s paperwork. During that time period, the babysitter’s 6-month tourist visa (if she had one) will expire forcing her to return home. “Many families find that domestic worker who takes care of their children and wants them to become part of the family, only to find out there really is no way to do it,” says Jackie Vimo, an economic justice policy analyst with the National Immigration Law Center.

Modify the existing H-2B program

Each year, 66,000 H-2B visas are available to non-agricultural workers without a secondary or professional degree. They usually go to seasonal employees at resorts and sometimes to landscapers or fishermen.  People can stay on the visa for 12 months and are eligible for two one-year extensions, but experts say that more should be made available — primarily because of the need for immigrants within our economy. “They’re the ones who are helping take care of our children and allowing for American women to work,” says Goldsmith.

Consider paying taxes

Many undocumented caregivers came to the United States decades ago. Some overstayed their visas, others never had them — but they were almost always in search of a better and safer life. Under current law, undocumented immigrants who have paid taxes and have proven good moral character for 10 years, plus have a legal parent, spouse or child who would “suffer extreme or unusual hardship” as a result of her deportation, can petition for legal status under section 240A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Admittedly, no one would endorse or wish hardship on a loved one for the sake of legal residence. But paying taxes and contributing to the American Social Security system might give more political support in Washington, D.C. for a pathway to legal status for undocumented workers.
MORE: What to Do During ICE Stops

Profile: Sean Vereen

Posted on by robbie

As speaker of the senate — the second most powerful person in student government at the University of Rochester in New York — Sean Vereen had already been working hard on behalf of his fellow classmates during the 1998-1999 school year.
But after a number of racial incidents, including issues with campus security and a perceived lack of support for minority student life, Vereen, now a NationSwell Council member, decided that he needed to assume a more vocal role.  “Eight of us got together and said that what was happening on campus was wrong,” he says. “We spent most of the fall and into the winter organizing a protest.”
Their goal? To gain more support for minority students.
Eventually, the planning meetings grew to 60 to 70 attendees. Their opinions led to the creation of a formal list of concerns among the University’s students of color.
As tension remained high on campus, Vereen recalls the president pulled him aside and said, “Look, if there’s something really bad happening, you can call my secretary to set up a meeting and I will clear my schedule within a day.”
So Vereen took advantage of the invitation, he recounted recently with a small chuckle. “I called a meeting with the president, but I didn’t tell him I was going to come with other people.”
Inspired by a scene in the movie, “Malcolm X,” the students dressed up in their finest clothes and peacefully marched in a single file line to the university president’s office. Remaining silent, they filled the hallways and did homework as local media documented the sit-in.
Meanwhile, Vereen and some of his fellow protesters negotiated with the president for an increase in the number of minority students recruited, the hiring of a more diverse faculty and staff and the creation of a diversity mission statement.
Once an agreement was reached, cheerful minority students then led a campus-wide march and rally in the student center that included celebratory singing of “We Shall Overcome.”
Vereen remembers those college days as a time when he learned the power of organizing and the necessity of collaborative work.
“We spent all this time putting the protest together and all of us brought something to the table. Some people were able to get a ton of friends to show up, others were good speakers. Someone like me had the connection with student government and knew the administration really well,” says Vereen.
Dr. Sean Vereen is the president of Steppingstone Scholars, an organization that works with families and schools to provide support for talented underserved students in the Philadelphia area. He is the former associate dean of opportunity and access at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The Giving Girls

Posted on by robbie

Thalia Taylor, a 17-year-old Bronx teen has a lot of opinions, specifically when it comes to problems affecting her peers. After all, young women from the South Bronx, Southeast Queens or East New York areas experience higher rates of HIV infection, are more likely to be victims of violent crime and have less access to reproductive services than white women within the same age.
New York City government has attempted to address these issues by funding nonprofits that work with young women of color in those neighborhoods, but there’s one glaring issue: The organizations often don’t have representation on their staff or boards of the very groups they aim to help. The result? Here’s what Taylor thinks: “By leaving us out of the conversation and not consulting us is really useless, in a sense,” she says.
But now Taylor has become part of a program called Girls IGNITE Grantmaking (GIG). This group of 15 young women from the outer reaches of New York City’s boroughs are deciding how to divvy up $30,000 amongst a handful of nonprofits providing assistance to young women.
“We have a 30 year history of participatory grantmaking and we really think that community members should make decisions on where funding goes,” says Neha Raval, senior program officer at the New York Women’s Foundation (NYWF), who runs GIG in alliance with the YWCA of the City of New York. “But there was a problem. We didn’t see young girls of color at the table helping to make important decisions that would impact them.”
(In exchange for their work, Taylor and the other young women in the program also received a $1,000 stipend, 10 percent of which was earmarked for donation to other philanthropic causes of their choosing.)
In advance of their grantmaking, the girls learned the ins and outs of how nonprofits are funded and participated in lectures about popular social issues. More importantly, they made site visits and listened to pitches from directors of nonprofits about how they’d solve various issues impacting young girls of color.
“We were so pleased to see young people in these leadership roles, and I think this is something companies often strive for,” says Tracy Hobson, executive director of the Center for Anti-Violence, one of GIG’s beneficiaries. “It made us really step back and ask ourselves, ‘How do we speak the language of the people that we work with all the time?’”

Without input from community members themselves, Thalia Taylor, third from right, believes that philanthropic assistance is useless.

Research into the demographics of philanthropy released in 2014 by the diversity coalition D5 showed that boardrooms are overwhelmingly filled with men and close to 90 percent of nonprofit CEOs and presidents are white.
The lack of diversity is problematic for philanthropic organizations hoping to address cultural issues such as socioeconomic status in poor areas or women’s reproductive rights.
“Philanthropy likes to think that it’s the investment capital for social change,” says Stephanie Chrispin, a public policy fellow at Philanthropy New York, a nonprofit organization. “But if its leaders are limited in their vision because they are overwhelmingly straight, white males who live in rarefied bubbles, the sector’s ability to see the possibilities and strengths in marginalized communities will remain obscured.”
Diversity within the nonprofit sector becomes even more problematic when looking at organizations that support youth. Leaders of nonprofits that work to help young women of color say there is a definitive lack of young female voices in deciding where money is needed most.
“If the point of diversifying is to make sure voices are heard for those who we’re helping, then philanthropy groups are failing,” says Jennifer Agmi, director of programs at NYWF. “With [the fellows], what we’re saying is we don’t know, and they know more than we do.”
Other philanthropic groups, including the Disability Rights Fund and The Social Justice Fund Northwest, also use participatory grantmaking. The New York Women’s Foundation plans to offer Girls IGNITE Grantmaking again next year.
By giving community members a seat at the table, more impact is achieved, says Dr. Amir Pasic, dean of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
“I think there’s been a realization, globally, that investing in young women helps elevate a community,” says Pasic.
And there’s another benefit for fellows, including Taylor: The empowerment gained by knowing that through voicing their opinions, they’ve had a part in making their community a better place.
Homepage photo courtesy of Vivienne Peng at The New York Women’s Foundation.

Family Day in Lieu of Mother’s and Father’s Day

Posted on by robbie

When I dropped my four-year-old son off at school a couple of weeks ago, I found a memo of “Dates to Remember” taped to his cubby. It announced Picture Day, an upcoming visit by a dentist and the graduation ceremony for the kids going on to kindergarten. But another event caught my attention: a “Parents’ Day” breakfast. Its short explanation made an important statement about diversity and inclusion. “We will not be celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day separately. We work in a very diverse field and not all children have a mother, father or either.”
… Or either. Consider that.
The school, known as Park Slope North, is among the most demographically diverse in New York City. It’s also socioeconomically diverse. Some students are raised by two moms, others have two dads. Some children live in foster care, and others reside with older siblings or extended family. Many families pay thousands of dollars in tuition, while others’ attendance is subsidized by NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services.
“It’s all about inclusion,” says Jewel Vaughn, the school’s educational director who came up with the idea. She adds that the goal is to embrace differences among children, “while they’re not noticing what society has normalized.”
According to the Pew Research Center data, family is complicated. Marriage rates are falling, and more than a quarter of children are raised in homes without fathers. Record numbers of Americans are living in multigenerational households and more than 3 million kids are being raised by grandparents — two demographics that experienced sharp upticks during the Great Recession.
Park Slope North’s staff see their new Parents’ Day as a small change that’s emblematic of a larger school culture aiming to level socio-economic divides in the next generation. “It is important to teach children at a young age about diversity, amongst themselves and their peers. The sooner we are able to embrace and accept it, the faster and easier it will be to close the opportunity gap,” Vaughn says.
The school’s liberal-leaning parents (myself included) welcome the idea. Some even suggested that to be even more inclusive, the celebration should be scheduled outside of normal business hours. That way, more parents would be able to attend.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea to celebrate the more neutral concept of Family Day,” says Khin Mai Aung, a mother in the school. “Not only is the concept more inclusive, but it is a good reminder to to be mindful of how families in our community are different.”  
It’s important to note, however, that many people consider such actions overly sensitive. When a Canadian school took a similar action, media outlets picked up on the story and commentary spilled onto social media, with critics posting, “It’s called, reality. We must remember that these kids must learn to cope with these types of things,” and “Political correctness strikes again.”
Whether it’s providing free breakfast, adding a religious holiday to the school calendar or creating additional childcare services, schools stand at the frontlines of meeting the ever-evolving needs of children and their families. Is celebrating Parents’ or Family Day instead of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day any different? No, it’s not. Mothering and fathering can come from anyone and children should have an opportunity to celebrate whomever they have.

The Latest Upgrade in Workplace Benefits, a Surprising Group Takes on Fake News and More

Posted on by robbie

 
Employers Are Finally Starting to Deal With Death and Dying, Bloomberg
Now that many businesses have established (or even expanded) childcare leave policies, some are giving their employees the space to cope with life’s sorrows as well. Forward-thinking companies like Facebook now offer extended paid time off for workers caring for relatives with long-term illnesses or grieving the loss of a loved one. As one advocate said, “This expands the concept of what it is whole people need.”
Librarians Take Up Arms Against Fake News, The Seattle Times
As hyper-biased and made-up news proliferates, young people are even more vulnerable than adults to misinformation. To help students sort through the noise, librarians and other educators launched “digital life” courses that train kids to think critically and fact-check the articles they read.
Wall Street Diversifies Itself, The Atlantic
While most executive roles in the financial industry are still held by white men, there’s a subset of investment trading that attracts more diverse leaders. Without the “100-year history of what the people in charge look like,” women and people of color found success in the new frontier of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, which emerged in the early ’90s. Insiders anticipate the rest of Wall Street will follow suit, as increased diversity has proven to improve returns.
MORE: How Digital Tools Are Helping in the Fight for Gender Equality

The Program That Encourages Girls to Speak Out About What It’s Really Like to Be a Teenager

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On a recent Saturday evening in Lower Manhattan, nearly two dozen high school girls stood next to glowing laptops, displaying projects to a milling crowd. One used the online presentation tool Prezi to click through chapters of her vampire novel-in-progress, which, she says, is a metaphor for society’s fear of African Americans. Another showed off her short film, “Stop and Smell the Roses” depicting New York City scenes about journeys: subway rides, map-reading, outdoor strolls. In voiceover narration, the filmmaker, Sharon Young, explains the uncertainty she feels about attending college in the fall: “I’m the type of person who wants to plan everything out, who wants to know what’s on the set list, if the clouds are going to be overcast, what sort of direction I’m floating in.”
Girls Write Now is largely responsible for Young’s emerging voice. Since 1998, the New York City program has paired over 5,000 underserved high school girls with established female journalists, novelists, screenwriters, bloggers and other digital media professionals. The teens (only 4 percent of whom are white) mainly come from the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx to string words into poems, try their hand at reporting a story or dream up the concept for a novel. Basic English proficiency is a challenge in many New York City high schools, so Girls Write Now helps low-income young women of color improve their communication, writing and leadership skills. With a mentor, a teenager develops a portfolio of creative work and then, during her senior year, crafts a college essay. Despite outside obstacles, every single senior who participated in Girls Write Now has gone to college — often with scholarships and accolades in tow.
As the media landscape changes rapidly, the mission of fashioning young female writers takes on a particular urgency since there’s now a chance for women of color to claim a space in a world dominated for centuries by white men. In today’s digital age, young women can control their own narrative by telling it themselves online, reaching a wide audience, says Veronica Black, a pixie-cut-sporting filmmaker, museum curator and Young’s mentor. Which is why Girls Write Now offers a special digital media program that trains teens in creative uses of the latest technology. “At the end…girls are equipped to tell a story in GIFs, write a poem in HTML, and take their words to the next level,” says Maya Nussbaum, Girls Write Now’s founder. “From narrative games to audio and animation, writing isn’t just in ink anymore.”
APPLY: Girls Write Now is an NBCUniversal Foundation 21st Century Solutions grant winner. Apply to the 2016 program today.
Young’s participation in the digital media program was unplanned. (Coincidentally, so was Black’s.) Initially shy, Young, a Harlem native and recent graduate of The High School for Math, Science and Engineering, one of New York City’s nine specialized magnet schools, kept her opinions to herself, needing several meetings before really opening up to Black. Together, the pair experimented using various types of digital media before Young discovered that film best aligns with her sensibility and visual way of thinking. (She’s attracted to the freedom that comes with a multi-platform definition of writing because she doesn’t have the patience to draft sentences until they’re perfect, preferring the spontaneity of capturing unplanned beauty on camera.) Suddenly, questions about classic movies, how to write a script and what Black had learned from her own video projects flowed out of the once-quiet girl. One night, as Young worked on her vlog, she glanced up from her video-editing software and realized it was two in the morning. “I think that’s when I realized making films was something I enjoyed,” she says.
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Today, in an interview at Girls Write Now’s offices in midtown, Young displays confidence, especially with her mentor beside her. After three years together, they understand each other, laughing about inside jokes and grading each other’s metaphors. “[Black has] been very supportive of my ideas and helped me turn them into reality. She helped me to be vulnerable in my writing and take risks,” Young says, sharing that her mentor “open[ed] my eyes to the different uses of digital media.”
While many of Young’s high school classmates plan on getting STEM degrees, Girls Write Now has given her other options for next year in college (she plans to attend Hunter College, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan) — including finding a way to bridge both science and art through technology. While scared of the future, she now understands the importance of being a female storyteller. “It’s taking ownership of your identity, your gender, your upbringing and not falling for society’s norms for you because you’re a girl. It’s breaking those walls down,” she says, possessing the mental clarity and confidence to articulate her feelings and share them with strangers. It’s something of a risk, she feels, but one she can’t resist. Now that she’s found her voice — and the perfect medium to share it — through Girls Write Now, there’s no sense hiding it.
Girls Write Now is a recipient of last year’s 21st Century Solutions grant powered by the NBCUniversal Foundation, in partnership with the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations. The grant celebrates nonprofits that are embracing innovative solutions to advance community-based programs in the areas of civic engagement, education, environment, jobs and economic empowerment, media, and technology for good. Apply here for a chance to be one of the 2016 winners!

Inside the Company That Recognized the Importance of Corporate Diversity 50 Years Ago

Posted on by robbie

When you think of Xerox, you probably think of copy machines. But what really should come to mind is diversity.
Back in 2009, Ursula Burns assumed the role of CEO — marking the first time that a Fortune 500 company not only hired an African-American female for the position, but also hired two female CEOs in a row. With women holding only 4.8 percent of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies, and black CEOs in these companies numbering only six, Xerox’s diverse leadership is remarkable.
But it didn’t happen overnight.
The seeds for Burns’s rise were planted 50 years ago through an innovative, company-wide effort to enhance diversity that continues to bear fruit to this day.
According to Paul Solman of PBS NewsHour, during the summer of 1964, race riots broke out near Xerox’s headquarters in Rochester, N.Y. Company founder Joe Wilson decided to meet with black community leaders to find out what could make their situation better.
Damika Arnold, Xerox’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager, tells Solman that Wilson “found out that the reason why they were rioting is because they didn’t have access to jobs. So he pledged that the black people of the community would be able to get jobs at Xerox.”
Wilson kept his word and then some. Xerox launched a summer minority internship program — which is how now-CEO Burns first joined the company in 1980. By 1991, nine percent of Xerox’s managers were black, compared to just half a percent at other companies.
But Xerox wasn’t content to rest with just this achievement. Leaders in the company saw that women weren’t making the same gains as men were, and when they analyzed the discrepancy, they found it was due to the fact that women with children couldn’t rise through the ranks because of the strict work schedules imposed on plant managers. So Xerox implemented job-sharing programs. As a result, women (even those with young children) began rising up the ranks.
Burns tells Solman, women are “not dumb in manufacturing. We just — we need a lot more flexibility than you’re allowing us to have.”
Additionally, Xerox encouraged the formation of supportive groups among its workforce, such as the Women’s Alliance, the Black Women’s Leadership Council and a gay and lesbian group. These gave employees of all backgrounds a myriad of opportunities for mentorship and guidance.
Burns believes Xerox’s groundbreaking emphasis on diversity has allowed it to weather decades of change in the business technology industry. The best idea, she says, “is to engage as much difference, as much breadth as you can, because that gives you little peeks into where some of the big opportunities will be.”
MORE: More Diversity Doesn’t Have to Mean Decreased Social Mobility
 

The Summer Camp With a Funny-Sounding Name Has a Serious Goal

Posted on by robbie

Walt Whitman told us to sound our barbaric yawp but these kids are sounding their… Eayikes.
What the heck?!
Eayikes comes from the acronym EEIICC standing for “Engaged, Empowered, Exposed, Informed, Inspired, Citizens of a Community.” However, EEIICC is not that catchy, so it morphed  into Eayikes.
While Eayikes is just downright strange, it’s the name of a new summer camp in California with a strong message.
Started by Ray Ricafort and some college friends, the camp focuses on building confidence, cooperation and self-esteem among the campers. Ricafort used to be tour director at the nonprofit Roadtrip Nation, but quit last year to dedicate himself to this new project.
The first session was held a year ago with students from various schools and programs. Like any normal camp, the days were filled with various workshops such as dance, creative writing and cooking. But there’s a unique intention behind every activity: To promote individuality while teaching participants to work as a team. Trust in others and individual self-esteem are the ultimate outcomes of the camp.
In the year since the camp first opened its doors, it has continued to expand. Eayikes achieved nonprofit status as well as held its second successful large event called “Wildernizzle” at Malibu Creek State Park.
Large events aren’t the only way it’s spreading the message of empowerment. It also engages the community through small events, such as a human library featuring members of minority groups that volunteered to be “books” that could be checked out. Every “book” was filled with their own stories, which readers discovered. The “books” answered any and all questions that readers had about their background and experiences.
At a time when young people are exposed to such negativity online, Eayikes is working to instill positive attributes in the future generation of this country. Sounds like a cause worth investing in.
MORE: Thanks to This Program, Inner-City Children Are Dancing

These Kids Studied 600 Lego Sets and Found Something Very Unsettling

Posted on by robbie

In 1981, Lego put out an iconic advertisement of a little girl proudly holding a creation made of red, blue, green, yellow bricks. Back in those days, Legos weren’t just for boys — they were for all children.
But look down the aisles at any toy store and you’ll immediately see that many toys (not just Legos) are gender-specific. When it comes to the plastic blocks, the kits geared towards boys consist of secret agents, dragons, spaceships and robots. For girls, there are the Lego Friends sets complete with butterflies, pool parties, beauty parlors, and pinks and purples.
And perhaps as a result of the gender discrepancy, these blocks are no longer clicking with all children.
MORE: Playing with Purpose: Toys That Encourage Girl Power
As the Human Rights Campaign reports, fourth and fifth grade students at Shorewood Hills Elementary in Madison, Wisconsin, studied 600 Lego sets and came up with some problematic stats. The findings are published on their site WhatItIsIsBeautiful.com (cleverly named after that 1981 ad).
The student researchers analyzed Lego beings and found that there were more robots, aliens and animals combined than there were girl figures. (The breakdown: 75 percent boys, 12 percent girls, 8 percent robots and aliens, 5 percent animals.)
Additionally, they also discovered that of 406 human Lego figures, an overwhelming majority — 94 percent — represented European cultures.
In a series of poignant letters, the youngsters wrote to the Danish brand, pleading for more gender and cultural diversity. One student asked the company, “First of all, why do almost all the girls in Lego have to be baking and suntanning? I love to bake, but it’s not like I cannot do rock climbing or snowboarding.”
ALSO: These Women Invented a Toy That Truly Includes Every Child
Another student wrote, “I think you should stop assuming that boys like blowing stuff up and girls like pink. I’m a boy and, personally I like pink. I think you should remove the whole Lego friends thing and make more girl figures. Maybe you could also add some African American Lego people.”
Remarkably, Lego spokesperson Steve Clines actually wrote back, acknowledging all the students’ criticisms (Read his response here).
“It’s true we currently have more male than female minifigures in our assortment. We completely agree that we need to be careful about the roles our female figures play — we need to make sure they’re part of the action and have exciting adventures, and aren’t just waiting to be rescued.”
He added that Lego is having “many conversations” about the concerns the students have raised and their comments will be shared with the Marketing and Development teams.
“After all,” Clines says, “we want to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow: that means both boys and girls, everywhere in the world!”
Sounds like these kids are literally the building blocks of change.
DON’T MISS: These Girls Had Little Chance of Becoming Scientists, Until They Connected With an Innovator Who’s Improving Their Odds

All This ‘American Girl’ Wanted Was a Doll With a Story Like Hers

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Like most 10-year-old girls, Melissa Shang loves American Girl dolls and their accompanying backstories. But she doesn’t see herself in any of them. Shang has Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, a form of muscular dystrophy that causes nerve damage and muscle weakness in the arms and legs, making it difficult to get around without leg braces or a walker. Shang has been collecting American Girl dolls for years, but now, with the help of her 17-year-old sister YingYing, she’s petitioning the company to make their next “Girl of the Year”–a special edition doll released annually–a character with whom she can identify.
“Being a disabled girl is hard,” Melissa wrote on her Change.org petition. “Muscular Dystrophy prevents me from activities like running and ice-skating, and all the stuff that other girls take for granted. For once, I don’t want to be invisible or a side character that the main American Girl has to help.”
American Girl embraces diversity —  in the company’s official statement regarding the Shang sisters’ petition, a representative pointed out that its dolls have had various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, as well as accessories like hearing aids, wheelchairs and guide dogs that can be purchased to go with any of the dolls. But for Melissa, additional accessories aren’t enough. “I want other girls to know what it’s like to be me, through a disabled American Girl’s story,” she writes. “American Girls are supposed to represent all the girls that make up American history, past and present. That includes disabled girls.”
The Shang sisters’ earnest plea has become one of the fast-growing campaigns in Change.org history, garnering more than 16,400 signatures in its first 48 hours. Since then, more than 63,000 people have signed, making the petition less than 12,000 signatures shy of reaching its goal. American Girl hasn’t said whether they’ll fulfill the sisters’ request. But either way, the story of 10-year-old Melissa Shang is an inspiration to disabled girls all on its own.
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MORE: This Video May Change the Way You Think About the Disabled