Zoe Terry’s Bio
Zoe Terry, 16 years old, is the CEO of Zoe’s Dolls, a not-for-profit organization founded in Miami, Florida. She started Zoe’s Dolls when she was just 5 years old. To truly understand the power of Zoe’s Dolls, you must first know the story of Zoe Terry. When she was 2, Zoe suffered a stroke. While it left her with fine and gross motor skill difficulties, along with some speech impairment, she was unstoppable. After hard work and intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy, Zoe overcame most of her physical limitations.
When she was in Kindergarten, she was bullied because of her skin color and hair texture. She was the only one in her class who looked like she did. She was also bullied because she was a bit slower riding the tricycle than other kids and because of her physical limitations. Once again Zoe was unmoved. She decided to do something about how this made her feel. She decided to act.
Zoe’s mother, who had always instilled in her the importance of paying it forward and giving back, had asked her to give away one of her gifts to a child less fortunate. Zoe complied. But after what she had gone through in Kindergarten, Zoe told her mother that she did not want to do that anymore. She knew she had the will and the power to do more. Zoe stated that she wanted to “start a company that gives free brown dolls to little brown girls in need at Christmas time.” Zoe’s reasoning for wanting to do this was two-fold. She wanted to give toys to little girls less fortunate than she was and she wanted to combat bullying letting little brown girls know that they were special, just the way they are.
This was the beginning of Zoe’s Dolls.