Personal Doll Paper #1

Johana Farias
Persona Doll Paper #1

HD 412: Working With Children and

Families in a Diverse World

Chiquita Waters

January 22, 2017

 This is the first time I create a Persona Doll. As much as this project sounded like a lot of

fun and I wanted my doll to identify as much about me as possible I couldnt stop thinking about

all the hard traumas and changes I went through as a child. I had a hard time thinking about how

and the best way to introduce this to children so they can better understand this Doll that

identifies me and my entire identity, without giving them too much information and triggering

hard emotions that they may have based on their own experiences. Although this may be a

difficult conversation to have, I do find that this is something very important for children to learn

that every child goes through rough experiences at home, but yet also may go through similar

experiences too.

The Persona Doll I have created is named Johana Farias. She is Mexican from both

Mother and Father. Both of her parents are immigrant and came into this country illegally. My

persona doll did not necessarily grew up homeless, she always had a place to stay, but her

parents did struggle financially and had a difficult marriage. She is thin tall girl. She has dark

black hair and big brown eyes. My skin color is medium light, and I have thick eyebrows. I wear

glasses to help me see better. My religion is Catholic in which I practice and attend several

catechism on weekends.

My Persona Doll is about a little girl who was busy all the time, and absolutely loved the

company of other people. She was unique in her own way and very imaginative. This Doll loved

to almost never be by herself and always tried to surround herself by other people that either

were her age or even older than her. In her early childhood years, this doll use to live with her

two parents and sister. Her parents argued a lot and had many differences and decided that was

best to completely separate. As time went by, this Dolls Mother decided to move to Mexico

along with her sister. In Mexico many different things happened. The Mother of the children
decides to abandon the children and decided not to come back. Shortly after an Aunt that lived in

the U.S in the city of Glendale CA, decides to take custody of the children. When the girls

moved into the Aunts house things did not go any easier. The Aunt was very strict and cold.

When the Doll was attending school, she often was made fun of other people from the clothes

she worn and the brand shoes she had as well.

My Persona Doll cultural identity is very similar and traditional Latino families. In my

family my Aunt was very strict and had me on a ridged schedule and I have chores to complete

that hardly even allow me to play like a normal child. I was not allowed to stay before school

opened and after school playground. I had several chores I needed to complete along with my

homework that did not allow me to have much leisure time. If any leisure time was available it

was very little of it.

One of the things I would like to teach children when introducing my very own persona

Doll, is that not every child in a household has parents. Some children are foster kids, which

means they live in a home that is not their own without a Mom or Dad, and perhaps live with

other family members or other people that are not related. Other children may be adopted with a

family are not their biological parents. Other children may have divorce parents and may have to

share the home of Mom and Dad. Whereas other children may be living in a household of two

Moms or two Dads. In some situations, they may be children who loose their Mom or Dad or

both due to an accident or illness. Whichever the case may be children should learn that every

child situation is different and they all matter and are important. I would also like to mention that

traditions, cultures are important as well. In my Persona Doll I would like to also mention that

everyone dresses differently and wears all kind of different clothes, and that there is nothing

wrong with that. In the following I have decided to create a total of 3 different short stories that
would better help children understand what my Persona Doll is all about. This is important to

share with children that Johana may be very different than everyone else, but yet she is still a

child like everyone else.

Develop an Identity for your Doll: My Persona Doll is a stick figure that I decided to use. I
drew on her dark black hair, brown eyes with black glasses. I also drew dark thick eyebrows
because many children from my classroom use to make fun of them often and it made me feel
very frustrated and upset. I was also made fun a lot for wearing low-class brand shoes that
apparently no one else in my classroom wore except for me and those were Payless shoes. On
their I wrote the letter P to represent Payless. I also decided to draw pants instead of a skirt
dress or shirt, because as growing up with my Foster Aunt, I was not allowed to wear anything
else but pants and that made my self-esteem really low on top of everything else I was made fun
of already. The following are three short stories I have used examples of how I would introduce
my Doll to children to better understand Diversity. I added her jewelry, a necklace, earrings and
rings because since I was a young child, I use to always wear silver jewelry.

First Story
Hello everyone my name is Johana Farias. I am 9 years old and my birthday is April 29. I speak
2 languages and they are Spanish and English. I wear glasses to help me see things better. I have
dark black hair and brown eyes. I love to hear music and I love to dance.

Second Story:
I recently moved homes from Mexico where I was living with other Aunts, Uncles and cousins to
another home with an Aunt here in California. I was born here in California but I lived in Mexico
for several months and I had a great time living with my other family and cousins. I now live
with an Aunt, Uncle, cousin and younger sister in the U.S. I do not have a Mom or Dad. I have
started elementary school in which now I am in fourth grade.
Third Story:
It is hard for me to have been separated from my parents. I dont even know if I will be able to
see them again. Although the change has been hard, I have things that are good for me and that I
need. I have food and a place to stay. In this home I celebrate my birthday, Christmas which is
my favorite and other holidays as part of my culture. I also attend a special school as part of my
religion and is called Catholic Church. I like going there because I get to meet other kids my age
and I like to do different activities with them.