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What Target did to win parents over with its recent Halloween costume ads
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For parents of children with disabilities, a recent Target ad accomplished more than just selling Halloween costumes. - photo by Payton Davis
For parents of children with disabilities, a recent Target ad accomplished more than just selling Halloween costumes.

That's because the ad featured a little girl with braces and arm crutches dressed as Elsa from "Frozen," Olivia Niland wrote for Mashable. And encouraged parents like Jen Spickenagel Kroll took to social media to discuss why Target's act of inclusion means a great deal to "normalizing disabilities in children."

Radhika Sanghani wrote for The Telegraph that Kroll's Facebook post collected almost 6,000 shares, with other parents praising Target also. Kroll's daughter, Jerrensia, 5, has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita meaning joint issues and Kroll has used the ad to draw awareness to what children like Jerrensia face.

Perfection is valued in mainstream culture, Kroll told Laura Willard of Upworthy, so few children with disabilities have figures in media to look up to.

"We work very, very hard to make sure that her little corner of the world is anything but lonely and void of other children with similar abilities," Willard quoted Kroll saying. "But as far as media is concerned there is a vast emptiness of children with whom she can relate. A Target ad with one precious little girl dressed as Elsa met her where she was and made the world a little more beautiful and friendly."

Sanghani reported Target embraced the responses of Kroll and other parents, saying the retailer "tries hard to include all of our guests."

When Kroll showed her three kids Jerrensia, in particular Elsa in braces and arm crutches, her daughter's reaction showed the power of Target's gesture, she told Willard.

"Jerrensia was thrilled," according to Willard's report. "She shouted, 'Wow! Just like me!'"

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