Today we’d like to introduce you to Farah Nizam.
Farah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Having been and raised in Duluth, Georgia, I never saw anyone that looked like me. Looking back now, I regret having spent most of my youth trying to change and hide who I was in order to fit in. It wasn’t until years later while attending Georgia State University that I had the fortunate experience to be surrounded by a beautifully diverse community. It was there that I finally had a support system in a wonderful group of friends and grew in my faith and identity. Eventually, I married, moved around, even living abroad, but eventually found myself right back here in Duluth, raising my own children. And although Duluth has changed for the better in a lot of ways, it can still be hard for a covered Muslim woman and especially hard for the children. I never wanted my children to feel the need to hide their identity, or even worse, feel ashamed of it.
As a homeschooling family, we are always crafting or working on some project. It was one day while playing with wooden peg dolls, one of my children asked me to paint them to look like “mommy and daddy”. It struck me that for the first time, I could make a toy that looked like us! Dolls that looked like our own family for them to play with this realization this was huge! I immediately painted a set of dolls with hijabs (headscarves), niqaabs (face veils), long beards, kuffis (Islamic skull caps) and in all shades of skin tones. My daughter was playing with a brown doll wearing a hijab, and this blew my mind. I never could have even dreamed of something like that growing up and to be represented in this way is simply amazing.
It didn’t take longs for friends and family to request dolls for their own families and I eventually opened up an Etsy shop. For the past four years, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of helping to promote diversity and representation in children’s toys. I’ve since branched out to include Arabic learning toys and DIY craft kits. From the very beginning of this journey, my business was created with my own children in mind. What would make them feel proud of their identity? How can I make them feel represented in the world around them? I’ve learned that when I stray from that initial vision, then things become muddled and confused, which is why I involved my own children in almost every single business decision. I honestly feel that this is the key to my success. They are my market research and product testers. I have literally scrapped ideas that didn’t earn their seal of approval. After all, I am doing this for them and for the millions of underrepresented and overlooked children, so they never feel a need to hide their true identities.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve learned that very few roads worth taking are ever smooth. Starting a business while raising and homeschooling children has been quite a struggle. Like most small businesses, there is a huge start-up investment of not only money but time. I’m blessed to have the support and help of my family, but at the end of the day, I personally hand paint each and every item. This makes it hard for anyone else to help with creating an actual product. Custom painting is very time consuming, but it’s important to me that each customer sees themselves represented in these dolls, which makes the late nights and long hours worth it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Little Muslim Dolls is a hand-painted peg doll company that seeks to promote representation and diversity. What started off as a fun craft for my kids has blossomed to so much more. I specialize in dolls that are available in all skin tones and all clothing styles, with an emphasis on minority representation. My most popular products are the custom family sets, a nesting doll that opens up to five separate dolls and a Hajj set that portrays the holy pilgrimage to Makkah and includes a hand-painted Ka’ba. I admit, I naively expected only other Muslims to have an interest in these dolls. But I am proud to say that almost half of my sales are from people outside the Islamic faith who either want to diversify their own toy collection or use in an educational setting. Little Muslim Dolls have been purchased by museums, ministers, therapists, teachers and more. It was a direction that I never imagined my business to take, but one I am most proud of. I feel that this range of interest is what sets my dolls apart from others.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel that Atlanta is the perfect place to showcase a diverse line of toys and teaching tools like Little Muslim Dolls. Atlanta offers the perfect backdrop of cultural diversity needed for a minority-owned business to thrive. I have been blessed with the support of many local customers who are passionate about promoting diversity.
Pricing:
- Free shipping on orders of $35
Contact Info:
- Website: www.LittleMuslimDolls.etsy.com
- Email: LittleMuslimDolls@gmail.com
- Instagram: @LittleMuslimDolls
- Facebook: MuslimDolls
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