Odessa, a character from my syndicated Kisses comic strip, was the first African American rag doll ever created for the American market. Despite the manufacturer's serious reservations, my efforts were vindicated as it had been a hit.  The Chicago Tribune used the dolls as a subscription premium. I even think I caught a glimpse of an Odessa recently when Oprah's African American Doll Collection was featured on Inside Edition.
 

"Odessa was the first African American rag doll ever created for the American market."

There were lots of Odessa dolls in the world, but the one that was stolen was much more important than all the rest—this was the prototype of a new Odessa doll, which took me three years to develop and design, and that was to be a new beginning for the toy manufacturing industry.

You see, I had discovered that my Kisses dolls were being made by child slave labor when I entered the wrong room in a Taiwan factory. I was only 21 when I began my business and totally unaware that 240 million children around the world were slaves.
 

© Robin Romano “Stolen Childhoods” is the first feature-length film about child labor - Premiers May 20th, 2005 Please click on image above to view the story

That moment changed my life. I quit licensing my products and began supporting many children's charities. That is how I first became involved with World Family, a foundation serving children and families in Cambodia and Thailand, as well as The Foster Parent Plan, Shriners Hospitals for Children, "Stolen Childhoods", the first feature length film on child labor, and Free the Children—a phenomenal success with children themselves helping children. I had designed the new Odessa with two purposes in mind: one, to license her with a company equally dedicated to ending child labor; and two, to make a doll that-like my inspirational writing- says you're perfect just the way you are. Kisses characters are drawn with their eyes covered because “All that is real is seen with the heart.”®