American Girl said no to a doll with a disability, so two sisters wrote their own novel

Melissa Shang has the same goal as we do here at Realabilities, to provide an optimistic but at the same time realistic view of kids with disabilities. Melissa Shang has a neurological disorder, Charcot-Mary-Tooth Disease, which causes muscular atrophy in her legs and arms. About three years ago, Melissa, with the help of her older sister Eva, wrote a petition to American Girl Doll for them to make a Girl of the Year with a disability. Although nearly 146,000 people signed the petition, the company turned the idea down. So Melissa and Eva decided to take matters into their own hands. They worked together to write a book called; Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School. The book is about a sixth grade girl who is a stop motion filmmaker and is campaigning to be president of her school’s Video Production Club. When her posters start disappearing, she and her friends set out to prove her opponent is stealing them. The book is now available on Amazon. Read more about Melissa here.