Healthy Roots

Healthy Roots is a toy company combating societal beauty standards on girls of color during the early stages of identity development. Healthy Roots dolls, the first line of natural hair dolls to enter the toy industry, have different facial features, skin tones, and hair textures that can be styled in countless ways.

Healthy Roots creates dolls and storybooks that teach natural hair care and celebrate all skin tones, bringing diversity to the toy aisle while promoting self love and empowerment for girls of color. The team at Healthy Roots aims to create products that reflect the changing world and the beauty inherent in every one of us.

Healthy Roots Founder + Creative Director, Yelitsa Jean-Charles, is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a BFA in Illustration and concentration in Gender, Race & Sexuality, a Venture for America Fellow, and a TEDxProvidence speaker. Healthy Roots grew from an art project into a startup raising $50k on Kickstarter, and continued to grow through participation in the Brown Social Innovation Fellowship, RISD EShip and Brown Breakthrough Lab, and was selected as a 2015 MassChallenge Finalist.

No one should feel “less than” because of the kink of their curl or the color of their skin. Healthy Roots is helping girls love their roots one doll at a time.