Recently, the FTC has been cracking down on Instagram ads and the reality stars who post them without including the #ad tag.
But surely they’ll make an exception when the Instagram post is a baby holding his own grandfather’s children’s book.
Especially when that baby is as adorable as Jackson Roloff.
Don’t worry — we’re kidding about the FTC involvement.
We’re pretty sure that their policy on ads is for paid sponsorships. They want people to disclose that they’re being paid, so that you don’t think that, like, Brielle Biermann is just obsessed with her UV tooth-whitening light that almost certainly isn’t responsible for her white teeth.
(I mean, I don’t know what kind she uses and I’m no orthodontist, but apparently experts tend to doubt the effectiveness of that kind of device)
Anyway, Tori Roloff shared an image of her adorable, precious baby — the first Roloff grandbaby — posing with Matt Roloff’s book.
Little Lucy, Big Race is a children’s book that is ostensibly about dogs but clearly about little people navigating hurdles in life due to their size but nonetheless accomplishing the same things as everybody else.
A lot of disabilities have children’s books, but there aren’t all that many. Every new one is welcome.
Books like this can be an empowering and relatable educational tool for preschool-aged children who are little people.
Books like this can also be incredibly useful for other children to read in order to empathize with and understand little people.
Most importantly of all, though, look at how adorable Jackson is in this photo:
He’s so cute! And it’s not even the first photo of Jackson Roloff showing off something.
Tori Roloff shared the photo of her precious baby and included this caption:
“Baby J just has no idea how lucky he is… grandpa Roloff dedicated his first book to Jackson!”
That is such a touching gesture!
(Though we hope that baby Ember Jean will get a book dedicated to her, too)
“We love Little lucy big race so much! And BONUS our beloved Sully makes an appearance or two! Now you guys can order your own copy!!!”
Awwww!
Like we said, this is an advertisement — it’s just not a paid one.
Totally within the rules of Instagram, we think.
“It’s available online (link in my bio) and at our family pumpkin patch! Get your copy before they run out!”
(Here’s the link if you’re interested in Little Lucy, Big Race, by the way. Also not an add; we just thought that we’d save you some trouble)
She also included the tags: “#babyjroloff” and “#littlelucybigrace.”
We don’t know what to think of calling him “baby J” instead of by his actual name … but whatever. Lots of babies have nicknames.
Tori Roloff also shared this photo of herself with Zach while Matt poses with the book itself.
A lot of people tend to think of writing a book as just a matter of writing it and then sending it off, wading through rejections, and then … profit?
There’s a lot more involved, especially in a deeply personal children’s book, and especially when you’re a reality star who is marketing the book yourself.
Matt Roloff wants to show the world the kind of dignity and accomplishments that are possible for little people.
This is especially important in a world where, even in 2017, too many little people on television are relegated to comic relief or to playing non-humans.
(Yes, we know about Peter Dinklage, but he’s just one guy smashing barriers and that’s on Game of Thrones, which is scripted television)
Let’s not even get into the antics and portrayals of little people on reality television, but we think that you can imagine.
Anyway, it’s a good idea for a book.
And baby Jackson is a great way to sell said book.
There’s just one thing that might have made that photo even better:
What if they’d had Jackson and Ember Jean on a bed or blanket with the book between them?
Now, we get it — the book is dedicated to Jackson who, like his father and both of his father’s parents, is a little person.
Jackson is also the first Roloff grandbaby.
But if their goal is to get attention … a photo of both babies in the same frame would work wonders.
Just saying.
