Little Dinos

Last weekend, Little Dinos was proud to participate in Bring Books Back: A Celebration of Reading hosted by iMagicNation! This community event featured local celebrity readers and authors, a quiet reading space, a book character costume contest, vendors and a silent auction.

Thanks to individual donations and purchases from our family store, we were able to give over 20 new books with disability representation to Springfield families. A special thanks to the incredible team at INCLUDAS ( ), a disability-led publisher that creates diverse stories, for donating several books by disabled authors!

Want to support Little Dinos' mission to create more disability representation for kids? Check out our website and our online family store to learn more! 

Image description: at the local Bring Books Back event hosted by iMagicNation, children play with balloons as a woman reads a story

Image description 2: bring books back logo featuring an orange oak tree with 13 colorful books in its leaves

Image description 3: a stack of donated books with disability representation including titles like “All the Way to the Top” “We Want to go to School” “Aven Green” “Disability Disability” and “Year of the Tiger”

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our latest portrait project! This month, Oaklee is painting a custom piece featuring a disabled child and her service dog for our friends at .

Oaklee, a disabled artist herself, uses adaptive tools made from rods, tape, and brushes to create large-scale portraits from her wheelchair.

Our mission? To help disabled kids feel seen and celebrated through art! We use illustration to introduce disability culture to kids and create inclusive custom paintings for care spaces. To commission or collaborate with us, email Little Dinos co-founder, Milly, at [email protected]

Image Description: Oaklee sits in a wheelchair and wears an artist apron covered in paint. A large painting sits on a wooden easel and she paints with a brush taped to a wooden rod. The in progress painting shows a young girl running and jumping in the air with her service dog by her side. Oaklee’s real service dog, Coco, sleeps on the couch in the background of the art studio.

We loved creating this custom painting for the pediatric room of our local prosthetic and orthotic clinic! This triceratops with a bright smile and shiny new prosthetic leg brings disabled joy into exam rooms. For a child with a new prosthetic, this kind of disability representation can make a world of difference!

Little Dinos is a family-owned and disability-led business specializing in inclusive art for care spaces. Our mission is to create welcoming environments where disabled kids and families feel seen, valued, and empowered!

We collaborate closely with clinics, hospitals, and therapy spaces to design custom artwork that reflects your community and values. Pricing carries based on size, materials, and timeline. Email us at [email protected] with details about your space, and let’s explore how we can bring more joy and disability representation to your walls!

Thank you to our friends at CPO for commissioning this painting!

Image Description 1: In a pediatric exam room, an illustration of a yellow triceratops with a prosthetic leg on a solid green background hangs behind a glass mount

Image Description 2: Close up of the same painting shows patterns and scales on the dinosaur’s back

Image Description 3: Oaklee, the artist, wears a mask and stands with AFOs and a blue and white cane. She holds up the painting in front of the local clinic

"Why do I have to wear these when other kids don't?"

That question comes up often for disabled kids, especially when they're first introduced to mobility aids, treatments, or anything that sets them apart from their peers. It can be confusing, frustrating, and isolating without the right context.

That's where representation makes all the difference.

When kids see other people (or dinosaurs!) using mobility aids or medical devices with pride, it helps them understand that their experience isn't something to hide. It's something to honor.

Disability is more than a medical label: its a culture, a community, a way of moving through the world. Early exposure to disability pride and disabled role models helps kids grow up confident, inclusive, and proud of who they are.

That's why we do what we do! We love creating art with real and empowered disability representation for families, hospitals, and communities!

Image description: on a solid white background blue and yellow text reads "Early exposure to disability pride and disabled role models helps kids grow up confident, inclusive, and proud of who they are." Beneath the text is a photo of a child's AFO braces standing next to a pair of adult AFO braces

We’re sorry we’ve been away for a bit! Our dino crew has been taking a health break but now we are back to helping kids find their ROAR!

Little Dinos is a family-owned and disability-led community project that uses illustration and public art to teach inclusive kids about disability culture in fun and engaging ways. We create paintings with disability representation for families with disabled kids, hospitals, and schools so that every kid can feel represented in the world around them. We also have fun and free ways to engage with Little Dinos through our downloadable coloring pages and community events! 

We can’t wait to share some of our new paintings and collaborations with you! Follow along on social media or check out our website to see all that our project has to offer. 

Image Description: an illustration of a young boy looking up to a large green t-rex. The dinosaur smiles down at the boy. Both of them wear AFO braces and the dinosaur walks with crutches.

We’re sorry we’ve been away! We took an unexpected break from this community project to celebrate our growing family and spend time together over the holiday season. We’ll be back very soon with some exciting new updates about Little Dinos!

Image Description: a homemade painted salt ornament hangs in our family’s Christmas tree. The ornament is shaped like a dinosaur with small purple AFOs painted on its green legs. Colorful letters on its back reads, “Little Dinos for Lucas Est. 2024”

What an amazing piece of art by Lucas!

Created by disabled artists, Little Dinos coloring sheets are designed to help initiate conversations about disability. We believe that teaching disability pride + disability culture from an early age can help kids grow into confident and inclusive adults! Visit our website linked in our bio to download our free disability coloring sheets.

Image Description 1: on a solid blue background white typed text reads, “Little Dinos Art Gallery” Beneath the title, is a Little Dinos coloring page framed in an ornate gold frame. The Little Dinos coloring page features a Little Dino with a prosthetic leg at a physical therapy appointment. The coloring page is covered with confident yellow, green, blue, and purple crayon lines. Beneath the gold frame, white typed text reads “by Lucas, age 2”

Image Description 2: Blue text reads, “We Love to share your artwork!” “Did you finish a Little Dinos coloring page? Did you draw a cool picture about disability? Email your finished coloring pages to [email protected] or DM us a photo and we’ll share your art on our page.” Dinos with various disabilities are illustrated across the bottom of the page including a triceratops with a prosthetic leg, a small red dino with braces and a walker, a dinosaur with an invisible disability and a dino with a neck brace.

Image Description 3: Various Little Dinos coloring pages are printed and laid out on a wooden table with crayons

Happy Halloween from the Yuknalis Family!

Image Description: on a solid purple background White text reads “Happy Halloween” three illustrated disabled Dinos are dressed up for trick or treating. From left to right, a green Dino sits in a motorized wheelchair and wears a witch’s hat. A pink triceratops has a prosthetic leg and wears a pirate hat. An orange Dino has a colostomy bag and is dressed as a fairy princess