We were watching Alysa Liu’s Olympic gold skate as a family, and my 6-year-old daughter was fixated. At one point, she jumped up and started spinning around the living room trying to skate like Alysa. 😂 My husband and I loved how totally unfiltered Alysa was on live TV. The excitement and personality! The way she just seemed so fully herself. I couldn’t stop thinking about the moment Alysa Liu changed figure skating. And the narrative for our children. We saw an Asian American girl take up space with so much joy, confidence, and ease on one of the biggest stages in the world. And I kept thinking about our kids watching that. Even when they don’t say it out loud, they see it. I started seeing Alysa everywhere. Then the messages started coming in: “Would you make an Alysa Liu doll?" Of course, I knew there wasn’t one yet. The selection for Asian American dolls is very limited, and we had made Riley, the first Wasian doll. So of course, we had to try making our Riley doll into an Alysa Liu inspired version. As I got deeper into this labor of love, I realized how many details mattered. Alysa’s striped “halo” hair rings inspired by tree rings and the passage of time in her skating journey. The movement of her dress - the feeling of seeing her dress on the ice. This "let's try" turned into almost three months of experimenting, failed attempts, sequins covering my house, and multiple people across LA, SF, and Hong Kong trying to bring this doll to life. At one point, two factories dropped out and told us the figure skating doll dress was too complicated. Honestly, that probably should have been our sign to stop. 😂 But I couldn’t. It was more than just making a custom doll. I wanted to capture that feeling... ..of watching someone who looks like you step into the spotlight completely as themselves. The feeling of possibility our kids absorb during play without even realizing it.It's why I started Jilly Bing Asian American dolls. Growing up, I loved dolls. But I also grew up in a world where “Asian dolls” barely existed, and when they did, they rarely looked like us. I wanted our kids to grow up differently. I wanted them surrounded by stories, toys, and role models that made them feel seen in a more real and joyful way. We ended up making two one-of-a-kind Alysa Liu dolls. We gifted one to her dad, and we’re still hoping to somehow get the second one to Alysa herself someday. We’re not selling this doll, but we created a special skating Big Dream Twirl Skating Outfit inspired by this journey, available as a very limited pre-order for all the kids spinning around their living rooms imagining their own spotlight moment. ✨ Our kids are watching and building a sense of what's possible.... I still think back to my daughter twirling across our floor with joy and victory that night. It's these moments that become part of how our children start imagining what’s possible for themselves. Thank you, Alysa, for showing our children that they can succeed, have fun, and be fully themselves!
