Nia Ballerina is the inspiration of my own daughter, and her absolute love for ballet. My mother had bought my daughter a music box, however the ballerina figurine did not resemble my daughter!  I wanted my daughter to have a music box with a ballerina that looked like her, and had presumed music boxes with black ballerinas were readily available.

I searched for about 18 months worldwide but was unable to find any musical jewellery boxes containing black ballerina figurines so made the decision to create my own. The process of producing the music boxes has taken time, has not been easy and has meant learning a lot of new things and skills but has been worth it.

When the Nia Ballerina music boxes first launched, we were inundated with orders and struggled to keep up with the demand selling half of our total stock within the first week.  Luckily, we were able to reorder almost immediately, and now dispatch directly from the UK and USA. 

I never thought when I created this product for my own daughter there would be such a demand, however it shows that representations is important and that every ballerina deserves to see themselves. 

Since the launch of the music boxes, we have added the Nia Ballerina Doll, Rucksack, Jigsaw Puzzles, Clothing and other gift items, and are currently working on a series of books about the adventures of Nia Ballerina. We would also love to add other ballerina characters to show diversity in ballet. 

One last thing, the name “Nia” is very close to my heart and is an African name meaning "purpose" in Swahili.  In addition, Kwanzaa is celebrated by the African diaspora worldwide between Christmas and the New Year, and has seven principals, one being "Nia" which is celebrated on the fifth day. 

Nia Ballerina is the perfect gift whatever the occasion for any little ballerina!