Nine-year-old doll-maker has entrepreneurial bent

leslie.castillo@waylandpost.org

After spending an afternoon with her mother creating their own dolls, Nina Garcia-Rivera was inspired and thought doll-making would be a great idea for a business — so she designed a doll on her own and used it as her business pitch when applying to both the Newton Children’s Business Fair and the Weston Wayland Children’s Business Fair.

Since the fairs fall on the same date and she heard back from Newton first, Nina chose to participate in Newton. It also provided her more time to work on her dolls. The nine-year-old doll maker will be in Chestnut Hill showing off her entrepreneurial skills on May 16.

Nina’s mother Lisa Garcia-Rivera said that as long as she can remember, her daughter has been a crafter. In her younger years, she used paper, cardboard, and glue. But, her skills quickly progressed and she began crocheting and sewing. Currently, she takes sewing classes at Sew Easy for Kids in Natick and has even developed an interest in taking woodworking classes with the hope of building tiny houses and furniture.

While her skills progressed, so too did her work space which was once limited to a sewing area in the basement. Now Nina has an area in the dining room and many other rooms of the house to work.

“Nina is always working on her projects,” Lisa said. “She will work on them when she comes home from school, after she does homework, and every other opportunity that she has.”

While the third-grader from Happy Hollow also loves acting and dancing, her true passion is crafting and creating. She has taken out 26 books from the Wayland Free Public Library that help her hone her skills and give her guidance in designing her dolls.

Nina’s website, Nina’s Dolls (tinyurl.com/nina-dolls), highlights her 13” dolls that are “crafted with care,” a phrase the creator coined herself. The unisex dolls are all hand sewn and crafted from her own designs. They are unique and have different hair lengths, styles, and colors.

“The ones with the green hair are my favorite,” Nina said.

She not only creates the dolls but also designs their clothing and matching accessories such as hats, bracelets, and hair clips. The price of a doll is $35 and the accessories range from $5 to $12, and she can also take requests for custom orders.

On May 16 from 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Nina will set up a booth in a tent in the green grass area at The Street in Chestnut Hill. She has an artist’s eye and will use her creativity to design a display background that’s just as pleasing as the dolls themselves and will highlight them in a unique and fun way. Pictures from her website depict mermaid dolls in the sea and another doll sitting on a couch in a well-appointed living room where the doll is crocheting.

Nina will showcase her work along with other children entrepreneurs ranging in age from 6-14 (parents are not allowed to be involved). An awards ceremony will be held from 2–3 p.m.

She takes great pleasure in creating her dolls. “Every doll is different because every person is different,” she said. “When you buy my dolls, it makes you happy, and when I make them, it makes me happy.”

Nina will be taking orders by email before and after the fair and hopes that she’ll see some familiar faces come to support her there. For more information, visit tinyurl.com/nina-dolls.