Sunday morning in the NYTimes, I saw an article about how Megan, The Dutchess of Sussex, promoted a doll on her new show “With Love, Megan.” Commonly known Stella Al Fresco, Megan’s daughter’s doll is sold with “a little baguette and a little cheese.” The dolls’ creators claim the dolls and their accessories help kids mimic adult behavior. Says  Acorn Store owner  Heather Hamilton where the dolls are sold, “Kids really like imitating life, and if this is what they’re seeing on their parents’ patio, then they just pretend play.”

Which makes me think that my little phearnik!® has a long, uphill slog to the market. How does my slightly scary looking doll/plush that is not like Stella Al Fresco compete with the sweet, cute and Cabbage Patch-like doll? And how does my aws Studios.art doll stack up against a doll promoted by Megan?

Yes, phearnik!® is not a sweet looking doll like Stella. phearnik!® actually looks a little scary. It’s supposed to look scary. I made phearnik!® to look a little scary because the plush represents a “little fear.”

The idea behind the phearnik!® doll was to make an object that represents fear.  I would take the “little fear” with me to remind me to keep my fears small. When I keep my fears small, they don’t get big and take control of things I want or need to do. More about where I got this idea here (hint: it’s from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear).

While making my granddaughter a phearnik!®, I came up with the idea to tell her its story in a book. Hence, I created the picture book Adventures with phearnik!® and gave her both the book and plush as a birthday present.

Since then, I wanted to share the book and the plush with others. phearnik!® definitely helped me. Every day it’s there to remind me not to be fearful of things that are new to me like a blank canvas. More importantly, it helps me with becoming an entrepreneur to promote the phearnik!® idea to others. I believe phearnik!® can help others who, like me, are held back by irrational and debilitating fears.

phearnik!® has helped me do everything I have needed to do to get to this point of launching the phearnik!® Campaign. The campaign seeks to raise funds to support mental health making the plush available to others, both kids and adults, dealing with irrational fears.

phearnik!® is not like Stella Al Fresco. But I like to think that even Stella would like to have a phearnik!® It would remind her to keep her fears small so she can live a more fearless life. Ah, yes, what a vision. Instead  of competing with each other, Stella and phearnik!® could be  friends!

Do you agree? What do you think? Have you ever had a doll like Stella? Or phearnik!®? Tell us about it in the Comments.