CHICAGO — Every girl should have a Barbie doll, says 8-year old Josilyn Martin.
For Christmas, her goal is to collect at least 1,000 of them, which she plans to distribute to Englewood children through organizations like Ada S. McKinley Community Services. The Barbies will also go to LaRabida Children's Hospital, and the CHA's Lowden Homes in Roseland and Trumbull Park in South Deering.
“I think every girl should have a Barbie,” Josilyn said from her living room couch in south suburban Richton Park.
Josilyn said Barbies were her favorite toy, and she had “too many” to count. She has just about every Barbie doll except for the Ava Duverney model because it sold out the first day.
Duverney directed "Selma" and became the first black woman to direct a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Josilyn said she wanted to become a director, and she enjoyed making videos with her Barbies. She's working on a Christmas special, she said.
When she thinks about girls who are less fortunate, she feels “sad.”
“It’s just sad because they all should” have a Barbie, she said.
Her mother, Kellie Martin, said she’s letting Josilyn take the lead on this project. It was her daughter’s idea, she said.
“She has a huge heart,” Martin said. “She’s always been that way. It makes me proud because she is not one of the kids who’s always just about herself.”
This is the first year Josilyn is collecting Barbies, but the plan didn’t start off this way.
As Josilyn explains it, “I went to the park with my grandma. I brought my Barbie with me, and I saw a girl and I wanted to play with her. I went up to her and asked if she had any Barbies, she said ‘No,’ and then I asked if she wanted mine. When I got home I asked mommy if I could [make] a law, and she said I couldn’t. I wanted that law to be that every girl should have a little Barbie.”
Martin said that Josilyn wanted to give away her own dolls, but her mother suggested she collect them to distribute instead.
“We didn’t even intend for it to be this,” Martin said.
Josilyn hosted a Barbie brunch drive Dec. 12 at the Velvet Lounge, 67 E. Cermak. She has collected more than 400 and has raised more than $600. People can send donations through PayPal by using Martin’s email address: kelliec.martin@gmail.com. They can also email to find out how they can drop off a Barbie or mail one.
“We’ll take them up into Christmas,” she said. “As long as they’re coming in, we’re going to take them and deliver them wherever they need to go.”
Josilyn said she wants this to become an annual toy drive that gets bigger and bigger.
“When I’m 10, each girl will have three Barbies,” she said.
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