A North Carolina woman creates the first book featuring crochet patterns with dolls of color

Writing a book was not on Yolonda Jordan’s bucket list. She just wanted to chase her passion and make a living doing it.

So, when a publisher reached out to her in 2019 about creating a crochet book featuring dolls of color, she thought to herself, ‘no.’

“They found me, and to this day I don’t know how they found me,” Jordan said. “I don’t know what officially made them say, ‘Let’s contact her.’ My first response was, ‘No, thank you.’ When they first contacted me, I was like, ‘I’m not the right person for this.’”

That was February 2019.

When the publisher reached out again that May, things had changed, and the loss of her mother gave Jordan a push to do something different.

“During that time period my mom actually passed away in April 2019,” she said. “One of the things my mother talked about often was what legacy are you leaving behind. (Her death) immediately changed my mindset about how I looked at this. There (were) so many things that she wanted to do that she didn’t get to do. I was like, ‘What is your legacy Yolonda?’”

After several drafts, title changes, and new directions, her book, My Pretty Brown Doll: Crochet Patterns for a Doll That Looks Like You, was born nearly three years later.

“My mother’s passing just changed my whole mindset,” she said. “The absolute ‘no’ became an absolute ‘yes we are going to do this.’”

The legacy started here

When Jordan was seven years old, her great aunt sat her down and taught her how to crochet.

“She’s the first person that put yarn and a hook in my hand,” Jordan, 43, said. “No books. No YouTube at that time. It was literally me watching her.”

Jordan would crochet until she went to college, where she became consumed with campus life and career goals, but in 2011 she stumbled across a woman who was loom knitting, which is the art of using a pegged style loom to create knitting patterns. It reminded Jordan of crocheting, and she decided to pick the skill back up.

Shortly after, she launched Don’t Get it Twisted Crochet, selling crochet hats and scarves. Two years later, she saw a crochet doll and started searching for patterns that looked like her.

“My first thought was that I wanted a doll that looked like me, and I didn’t look that,” she said of the white doll she saw. “That’s how Mia the Afro Puff Cutie was born.”

Jordan said she knew she had a good product. Still, the industry wasn’t kind, and focusing solely on crochet dolls made of various shades of brown might be a financial risk, but in 2015 she launched My Pretty Brown Doll anyway, and by 2017 it became her primary source of income.

“I understood that the fiber community is dominated by people who do not look like me. The women and the men who make money in this industry are not Black,” she said. “ We are here, and we do very innovative things, but we do not get the same recognition…and people do not want to pay us.”

Despite the challenges, including negative comments about her choice to focus on dolls of color, Jordan said she’s glad she stayed focused.

“I went from selling $40 dolls to $60 dolls,” she said. “Now my average doll sells for $250…According to the market, I am not supposed to be an expert in this field. In the Black dollmaking community, I’m an expert but outside of the community they are like, ‘Who is that again? What does she do?’ My work has done well. People recognize my work.”

To find out more about Jordan or My Pretty Brown Doll click here. Her book can be found here.