Barbie World Is "Fantastic," Unless You Are A Black Girl Looking For A Toy Who Looks Like You.

When I was younger, my family and I would participate in Angle Tree where we would go out a buy gifts for children who couldn't afford them. One year, my sister got a little girl and on her list she wrote that she wanted a black barbie doll, my sister, at 5 years old, looked up at my mom and asked her "what's a black barbie doll?"

The lack of diversity when it comes to children's toys is dangerous. It can build and reinforce negative stereotypes about people of color and it can promote ignorance at very young ages. As seen with my sister, she was young and didn't understand the depth of her question, but imagine if we never got that card and my mom didn't have to explain to her that there is and should be a greater variety of shades of skin color in dolls, my sister could have sustained the belief that there is only one shade of skin. Nude (aka white). This happens a lot merely due to the fact that kids are not exposed enough to different tones of skin in their dolls. In psychology this is called the mere exposure effect where people tend to develop preferences based on things (or people) that are more familiar to them than others. Repeated exposure increases familiarity. So kids going down the barbie isles in target every time they go shopping reinforces the notion that white is the only race, or the only race important enough to be sold. This can be detrimental to children's of colors self-esteem that has effects for their entire lives. Imagine going to a toy store when you are a young child and not seeing anything that looks even close to how you look... immediately, whether consciously or not, you are not going to feel unnoticed, invisible, and not important.

Even when Barbie added the "Black Barbie" or the "Hispanic Barbie" the different packaging and even having to include the race/ethnicity before "Barbie" reinforced that white is the standard. Reinforcing to children of color that they are different and not normal or as accepted to their white counterparts, just as the dolls are accepted with their white counter parts.

Connecting with my previous blog posts, growing up and getting your 1st bra or your 1st pair of high heels and wanting something nude and once again being exposed to a color that doesn't reflect your skin tone...This socialization starts at a young age and is reinforced in almost every other aspect of your life. This is in turn will impact mental health starting at a very young age. It is disheartening and there needs to be a change, there needs to be more representation of people that aren't blonde hair blue eyed with fair skin. 17% of the population have naturally blonde hair and blue eyes, so regardless of skin tone, this isn't an accurate portrayal of the population at all.

Now, this is getting better. Companies like Brown Eyed Dolls are creating more diversity within the toy industry that have set in movement the inclusion of many different races and ethnicities within the looks of their dolls. This is the link to the Brown Eyed Dolls website if you feel inclined to check them out and support their small business! http://browneyeddolls.com/

I would also check out this video below where Ijeoma Kola unboxes these dolls and talks about the company and how much she would have appreciated a company like them when she was a kid!