Category Archives: Toys

Barbie’s New Body

Barbie.com

The news was just released that Barbie is getting a new body to be more realistic for the average girl’s body. And my initial reaction was, “FINALLY, MATTEL GOT THE MESSAGE.” We know that this concept of realistic body images for girls is a hit and some folks have taken it into their own hands to develop realistic dolls, like the founder of Lammily.

Now, the traditional Barbie isn’t getting replaced, but instead will have shelf sisters who are more diverse than ever. In addition, to the changes Mattel made in 2015 by offering different skin tones, Mattel is taking it a necessary step further by added three new body types to the product line: tall, petite and curvy, which also happen to come with different hair colors to best reflect the ever-changing trends of 21st century America. YASSSS!

Not only does this doll evolution develop young girls’ views on self body image in a healthier way, but it also provides a greater chance for play and imagination to run wild. All too often I found myself as a kid throwing doll parties in Barbie’s dream townhouse (complete with pulley elevator) and I often forgot who was hosting the shindig because Veterinarian Barbie looked like Nurse Barbie or wait, was that Ballerina Barbie? — all Barbies in my play trunk looked the same — bright smile, blonde hair, trim waste, always shoeless — except with the only identifier being her clothing, which I changed regularly. Girls now will have the opportunity to play with dolls that closely reflect what’s currently out in the world allowing them to develop more character personas which lead to creative playtime and ultimately growing their reasoning that yes, we’re all people but what makes us beautiful is our differences.

I’m ecstatic that after years of media and bloggers like myself urging Mattel to make changes by exposing the false realities of Barbie’s biology they finally listened. And the new and improved dolls went on sale today at Barbie.com and I’m interested to see how well they do in terms of sales and outreach to more moms, daughters and other Barbie enthusiasts.

Watch the video from Mattel on why this evolution is important to them — AKA Mattel showcasing that they’ve received our messages loud and clear!

This Girl Scouts for Reality in New Barbie

-from Girl Scouts Facebook page.

This week Girl Scouts and Mattel paired up to create a Girl Scout Barbie. Yea I know, for an organization that has been a front-runner, in my opinion, on tackling negative body and self-image and promoting leadership among young girls and teens, I’m struggling to see where this doll fits in their overall mission. But just like everything in today’s world, controversy sells. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE ABOUT DOLLAR SIGNS INSTEAD OF MORALS.

Any who, way back in the day I was a girl scout, first a Brownie then a Junior, and never did my uniform consist of tight fitting pink capris and heeled boots. In fact, the uniforms were so unflattering and ill-fitting that I didn’t even want to wear it half the time. Perhaps girls still don’t? Check out year 1993 on this lovely timeline of Girl Scout uniforms. Do you blame me!?

On Girl Scouts Facebook page the organization commented that “girls and moms alike associate this doll with the outdoors, camping, giving back in your community, and we think that those are really positive message to all of our girls. What do you think?”

I think those are all great messages for our girls, but this doll in no way portrays those messages. I associate this doll with Mall Barbie or even Miss America Barbie, but instead of a state name block-lettered across her sash there are badges of honor, from all the camping and hiking she must have successfully accomplished in her heeled boots without breaking her ankles (kids, don’t try that at home), full face of make-up, and beret fascinator that seemed to stay perfectly positioned on her head of coiffed hair.

These days, the typical 10 year-old girl looks more like she’s 15 (and acts 18) but since when did Junior Girl Scouts (9-11 years-old) look 20? This doll looks more like a Girl Scout Ambassador (15-17 years-old) or troop leader, not a Junior that she portraying with her green sash.

I trolled through the comments on Girl Scout’s Facebook page regarding this monstrosity of a doll, and one mother offered up her 7 year-old girl scout’s opinion, “She doesn’t look like she would really do real girl scout stuff. Like she would just set back and say ‘I don’t want to get dirty.’ But being a real girl scout is about getting dirty and helping your community.”

I will, however, give kudos to the designer for making her racially inconspicuous, thus making her a doll for everyone, which is something that I like to see! I also have to admit that as an only child I used my imagination and played with Barbie dolls often and never felt inferior because I didn’t look like her, didn’t have that dream house with an elevator or that hot corvette she cruised around town from job to job because I could separate a plaything from reality. I think in today’s unlimited access to media and communications makes it harder for young kids to separate (let alone dissect) what’s falsified and what’s reality. Because even adult women have trouble with this reality and try to obtain the impossible which leads to this. With that said, no, I don’t think this doll is bad to play with, though I’d prefer a doll that looked more like a Lammily, even Skipper would do, but I’d like Girl Scout Barbie to more accurately portray the brand of the organization and reflect the average age of the majority of scouts while wearing a true uniform. And maybe feed her a cookie or two?

What’s your opinion of the dolls and the message it’s sending young girls? Would you by this for your sister, daughter, or niece? Let me know in the comments!

Dear Barbie, Meet Lammily

Dear Barbie, Meet Lammily
We’re all familiar with the unrealistic Barbie biology and the pressures she subconsciously has on young girls growing up.

Hey there, Lammily! image credit: Nicoklay Lamm

Nickolay Lamm, a full-time artist and researcher sat down a few months ago and designed a “normal” Barbie that reflected the proportions of a 19 year-old girl based on the CDC reported standards. His goal: to show that average is beautiful and to revolutionize how girls think about their body through a new fashion doll named, Lammily. Watch out Barbie there’s a new girl in town and she can bend her knees, elbows, wrists, ankles and isn’t constantly walking on her tippy toes.

After countless requests from parents and girls alike to make this average doll from an illustrator on paper to a physical doll for purchase, Lamm started his kickstarter campaign and as of March 5 has almost $20,000 raised!
Seeing that Barbie was featured as a Sports Illustrated model this year, (seriously) it’s clear Mattel has no interest in changing Babs measurements to be more realistic. However with the demand for change, there has never been more of an opportune time for toys to challenge societal standards. GoldieBlox challenged the pink aisle and restrictive gender stereotypes and so will Lammily.

I already donated $75 and I am looking forward to giving away one first edition Lammily doll right here on the blog! So stay tuned for that nugget of awesome!

I really believe by changing toys, freeing magazine covers of photoshopped images, and casting more female protagonists in television shows and movies we are changing the way girls think and view themselves and others.
Please donate to the Lammily project here: https://www.lammily.com/average-is-beautiful

What are your thoughts on making this average doll a reality for girls everywhere?!

The Spooky Reality of Sexy’s Sister, Naughty

Naughty is not so nice when you’re talking about Halloween costumes for toddlers. This year Walmart housed costumes of the animal varieties on their shelves and labeled them as “sexy”, “naughty”, “playful.” However, what Walmart and the Consumerist.com seem to be the most concerned about are not the adjectives describing the costumes, but how inaccurate and non-animal-like the costumes are. Well, I agree with that!

ladies and gents I give you the “naughty leopard”

For instance, as you can see in the photo to the left the “naughty leopard” frock has a tutu and purple leopard ribbon trim—not quite the furry feline we’re used to seeing in the pages of National Geographic. Spoiler alert: Walmart is pulling the costumes from the shelves to do more “research.”

So why am I writing about this ordeal? Well for one, it’s been cluttering the Interwebz for weeks and I just can’t ignore it any longer. And two, why the heck do people (myself included) get irritated when kid things are labeled with sexual-ese language that connotes that something (this costume for instance) is sexual when in reality it’s not? To be real: It’s a dress accessorized by animal ears.

To be real part deux: It’s marketing at its finest. I’m elated to know that people are opening their eyeballs to these marketing tactics and calling out their one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other bluff.

As Jezebel had pointed out, the Halloween costume industry has been a contributor to the over sexualized culture. So now, when we hear “naughty” we (for the most part, admit it!) picture a risqué and lewd version of the actual “thing”. In this case the “thing” is a leopard. BUT WHY!?! Naughty has since the 1600s been a word used to describe someone being mischievous or behaving improperly. The 1900s is when “Naughty” became “Sexy’s” sister.

I know you’re tired of hearing about leopards, soooo let’s use the “naughty elf,” imagery as an example.

What do you picture when you hear “naughty elf?”

Half of you just pictured a nugget-sized human in the north pole clad in a coat with fur trim and a pointy hat, misbehaving or rigging all the toys to make children sad AND the other half of you thought of a hot-to-trot blonde in a mini skirt covered in jingle bells, sporting a cropped-coat that features white fur trim (surely, that thing can’t be warm) sounding out her vowels (ay-ee-iee-ohhh-ouuu *duck face*).

north pole toy maker vs. human hot-to-trot woman ready for a costume party. disclaimer: cartoon elf not true to size (in comparison to woman elf on right)

You get the point. So it’s not about the costume being labeled as “naughty”, but rather what the word “naughty” actually means in our culture vs. the dictionary.

It’s time to send Naughty back to the days of wetting paper balls in our mouths and launching them through straws at our classmate’s head, to eating dessert right before dinner, and getting yelled at for not taking off muddy shoes before walking in the house!

Which imagery do you have when you think of “naughty?” How can we get Naughty to stray from her sister Sexy? Share in the comments!

More Than a Princess: Disrupting the Pink Aisle

Photo credit GoldieBlox YouTube. Screenshot by ShatteredGlassSlipper

Wandering the toy aisles of your favorite toy store it’s very clear which toys are “meant” for girls and which are “meant” boys. Girls like Riley aren’t happy about these color-coded marketing tactics. Who could blame her? The colors pink and blue have been used to label the different genders since the beginning of time we were born. Blue or pink bonnet anyone?

But in 2012 Stanford engineering graduate, Debbie Sterling, had it with these labels and aimed to disrupt the pink aisle and prove that girls are more than just princesses; they are creators, engineers and inventors. She founded GoldieBlox, Inc.—a startup toy company that combines reading with building, something that we haven’t seen much of in the pink aisle by the way of Legos or Erector sets.

To transform GoldieBlox from an idea to a reality, Sterling set up a Kickstarter campaign for the first production order, raising about $285,000, surpassing her original goal of $150,000. (Woohooo!) And earlier this month GoldieBlox started to be sold on the shelves of toy retailer, Toys R Us! (double whoohoo)!

Seeing a toy like this hit the shelves, become a reality, and inspire young girls makes me get a bit nostalgic and almost kind of jealous that there weren’t really any toys out there when I was growing up that involved a story line and building. Yes, LEGO that means you and your superficial way of inclusion by slapping a pink case around your plastic building bricks, hey look now they’re for girls!

When I was in elementary school I loved science and all the hands-on experiments we were able to conduct, measure the cause and effect, and challenge the dependent and independent variables. (betcha haven’t thought about that stuff in awhile, eh?) But somewhere around high school I fell off the science metaphorical train and landed in the creative and writing side of things, nothing wrong with that!
Growing up I didn’t really know what real career options were available to a science lover besides well…a scientist (mental picture: Albert Einstein). We attended field trips to science museums to see and learn about the great discoveries and inventions by men throughout history and were shown countless episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy (Bill, Bill, Bill!)

The saddest part? I don’t think I ever once challenged or argued where Brenda the Builder or Edna the Engineer was hiding. Because it was “just the way it was.” Shame on my naïve baby self. I accepted the societal norm without really knowing it.

For this reason, I’m grateful for bold women like Sterling who are challenging societal norms and aiming to make change and bring awareness among young girls reaching their highest potential. Sterling is a game changer, she’s not only proving a toy to keep girls’ interest in engineering but also show girls in a hands on way that they can and do become engineers, just like their role model in the storybook, Goldie!
Thanks to Sterling, today’s young girls, like Riley, can feel a bit more comfortable walking the toy aisles.

More on Debbie, how GoldieBlox came to be, and proof in her engineering pudding!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEeTLopLkEo&w=560&h=315]

The Shattered Glass Slipper

smashing girl stereotypes into tiny smithereens