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\"Yes this is a silly little tradition that I am doing for my daughter for the first time this year, but I truly hope that it starts a conversation that we find really hard to have with our kids,\" she said. \"Having a conversation about seeing someone in a wheelchair or seeing someone use a mobility device, it's hard for us as parents when we've never had to have these conversations before, so if you can start it with Elf on the Shelf, why not?\"

Lackey continued, \"I think bringing inclusion and normalizing disability is going to only make our kids a little kinder when they see someone with a disability.\"

Lackey said she has also received comments on Instagram from people with disabilities and other parents of children with disabilities thanking her for the representation.

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In 2019, more than 2.5 million households in the U.S. were estimated to have at least one child in the home with a disability, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lackey said she remembers one incident at a doctor's office that taught her the importance of talking with kids about different disabilities. In the moment, Lackey said she overheard a young girl asking her mom why Stella was in a wheelchair.

The mom encouraged the girl to go talk to Stella, who was too young to talk at the time, so Lackey said she stepped in.

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\"I really appreciated that because it gave me the opportunity to just have a conversation with this 6-year-old about why Stella was in a wheelchair,\" Lackey said. \"And she didn't really care about why Stella was in a wheelchair. She just loved purple wheels.\"

\"We make it a lot harder on ourselves,\" she said of parents. \"If we start with small conversations, whether it be Elf on the Shelf or inclusive toys or a character in a book that they see, or on their favorite TV show, that's just going to help a future generation be inclusive and be kind and be good humans.\"

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