Mom makes dolls for her deaf daughter and other kids with unique physical features

"Over time parents of children with other medical devices/conditions contacted me and asked if I could make a doll that represented their child," Tawell writes. "Yet again the Mama Bear in me was awoken with rage that there were not any dolls for these children and so I created them with the same amount of love, care and attention that I gave to making my daughter's own one."

BrightEars dolls include cleft lips, strawberry marks, feeding tubes and ports, and more.

Imagine what it must be like for a child with a cleft lip to have a doll that looks like them.

Or for a child with a strawberry mark.

Tawell makes dolls with all kinds of medically necessary attachments, such as feeding tubes, insulin pumps, urinary catheters and more.

She makes lots of dolls with various kinds of hearing aids and cochlear implants.

And other higher tech medical devices as well.

You can see the full collection of dolls Tawell creates on the BrightEars website.

She even creates Elf on the Shelf dolls with various unique features for the holidays.

Demand has gotten so high that Tawell has had to halt orders for a while, which she shares happens sometimes when media outlets pick up her story or photos of her creations go viral on social media. She doesn't have a factory or employees—it's just her at her dining room table, so a big influx of orders can quickly become overwhelming. Tawell can take custom requests for dolls to match a child's exact birthmark, condition or device as closely as possible, with custom orders taking four to five weeks.

For a child who already experiences feeling different everywhere they go, having a doll that they can see themselves in is a lovely, meaningful gift.

Love to see people's thoughtful, creative, life-changing projects doing what they were designed to do.