When I got married and began to buy toys for my nieces and nephews
to play with, I bought baby dolls, Barbies and action figures of all colors.
( I made the clothing they are wearing. )
I have always loved ethnic dolls
but also I have nieces and nephew of mixed races
and did not want just white dolls here for them to play with.
I am now making paper angel ornaments for Christmas,
I made them of all different colors.
Most of the folks that come to our greenhouse are of Pennsylvania Dutch
background they are fair skinned, I do not know
if they will buy angels of different colors,
I would buy one of each for myself, I love diversity.
Do you think when most people buy dolls etc
they prefer to buy ones that look like themselves ?
Comments (37)
I have white dolls and black dolls as well. I also have Barbies of different nationalities. I don't know what people are like in your area, but in my area I've never seen white people with colored dolls. I like diversity too and I'd get one of each. My mom loved collecting dolls and angels of any color. You're so talented! I wish I had the patience to do all you do.
I have mixed sister-in-laws. They are nine year old twins. They asked for baby dolls one year for Christmas. One asked for a black doll because she liked that it looked like her. The other asked for a white doll that had blonde hair and blue eyes because she was "prettier". It really made me sad to hear her say that.
I think if you had ethnic dolls/angels available for sale, people would buy them even if they're not of the same shade. I love the diversity as well. All different but still all beautiful.
@UndyingNova - I agree.
lovely!
I don't really have any dolls at my house but I'm trying to think if any of the action figures are diverse like that. I'm going to check that.
I only ever had white dolls and barbies, and never really thought about why. I think typically people would buy dolls to "match" the child/person receiving them. Growing up, my best friend had (and had wanted) the African American American Girl doll, Addy. I never really questioned why she wanted or had that one, because I never thought it mattered. It is a shame though that typically there are less ethnic dolls available, and when they are, they sort of make a big deal of it. Your paper angels are beautiful!
In 1971 we visited an inner-city church in Wichita and I was fascinated to see murals of Bible stories painted with all the people being black. Most of the Jesus paintings I'd seen until then made him look north European rather than Middle Eastern.
I think that we all gravitate toward the familiar up to a point (age 5?) then we start to explore beyond what we know. I had the first Black Barbie - Christie. I liked he much better than Midge. Anyway dolls let us explore the world in the safety of the playroom... I think your angels will all sell! I'm betting angels come in all sizes and shapes and even colors!
When I was a kid, there only white dolls, though I probably would not have bought a black one just because it would seem unnecessary. I think that, now, I would since I live where there are so many races living side by side. I'm sure your angels will sell.
I think most of us buy whatever color matches us. It takes lovely, premeditated thought to do what you've done. I think it's a wonderful thing. Thank you for sharing this.
I just had the original barbie, my friend had the darker skin version (she also has darker skin than I do) and we'd play with our barbies together. It wasn't weird to us, our babies looked like we did. I think it's nice to have dolls of all races but I also think kids like playing with a toy that they can relate to in some way. I think the parents can enforce that by suggesting toys that look like their kids, but I'm thinking that even if there was no suggestion offered the kid would still go to the toy that the best associated with. I'm sure theres a study on it somewhere
My mother made all my Barbie doll clothes, and other doll clothes as well. Even though I have brown skin due to being Asian, my parents always bought the 'white' dolls for me. I did have an Asian doll once cuz the black hair and facial features resembled me somewhat. Diversity is a good thing.
To me, anything that isn't blonde, is ethnic. When I date a redhead, I'm really taking a walk on the wild side.
I'm guessing children might tend to pick out dolls of different races as often as not but that's just a guess. I like your angel ornaments!
The Barbie clothing is so wonderful! And it's so thoughtful of you to make sure that your nieces and nephews have dolls with a range of skin colours to play with
I always had white dolls, but I grew up before ethnicity became an issue of pc-ness! I'd buy a mix of your angels -- they're lovely!
they're all beautiful
i had dolls of different ethnic races and so did my daughter
I think little girls often gravitate towards dolls that they identify with. I was the only blonde kid in my class at school for several years. I was really into Barbie and in the beginning, I always asked for the blonde ones. At least at home I wasn't the only one! Later, I had black ones, Asian ones, Latino ones and even some Ken dolls. At that point I wanted my play to more resemble my neighborhood and school.
My mum and grandma made a lot of Barbie clothes over the years. I still have most of them and I do treasure them!
I like diversity, but all too often the "ethnic" dolls are from the same mold as the white ones, just with different coloring, so they look wrong. The white dolls are prettier because their skin and facial structures match.
I'm not a doll collector, but I do like ethic dolls and holiday cards.
I don't know but you have so many talents. The doll clothes look great.
Ethnic dolls are cool, but I've never seen a Deaf doll!!
I think for the most part they do. I think that is why American Girl is so popular. Girls can get dolls that look just like them.
I'm looking for ethnic dolls dressed in modest clothing for a young girl my mom is sponsoring in Bangladesh. She loves dolls but its frustrating because I can't find any dolls in America with modest clothing (the girl is Muslim).
I am not sure I have ever bought a doll...
Maybe John has...
I thought I was black until I was about five.
I also want to get a toy for your child every time we close them after the go làm kế toán
that is so good,Beth.
I borrowed my sister's paperdolls and took to show and tell at Kindergarten.My mother said,"don't tell your sisters and I said,"the kids at school loved your paperdolls." lol I must have forgot to not tell.
i prefer a bear doll
I remember when I was little I would always want to play with a barbie that had dark hair and skin specifically because she didn't look like me. My grandpa noticed one time and asked me why I preferred them over fair skinned dolls that looked more like me. I remember exactly what I said, "Because this one (she had dark skin and hair) is different, so she's prettier than this one (fair skinned and blonde)!" I thought it was more fun having dolls that were "different" from what I was used to.
My niece was adopted into our Caucasian family from Guatemala. As she's gotten older, everyone is always buying her Latina looking dolls with her coloring. She finally said to her mom, "Enough with the brown babies! I just want a Barbie!" Hee hee. I guess she's looking for a little variety in her collection, too!
Very cool stuff!!
I think it's natural to do that. We bought Elita Barbies and dolls, some new and some from the thrift store of all different colors. I remember when I would be in here typing for work and that child would take the brown Barbie head and put on the white Barbie body and the white Barbie head on the brown Barbie body and then she couldn't get them back on the right body!
She also had this doll that sang when you pushed her hand. It was a Ring around the Rosy doll, but she had a brown one that day. We went grocery shopping and the ONE time I left the station wagon open, when we came back her doll had been stolen! We went to Toys R Us and all they had were white ones and she was NOT happy. Finally after digging on the shelf we found a brown one so I bought that one. From then on I locked my car.
http://youtu.be/bSEB9MtmVbk
This is not very clear but it shows the white one. She had both but the brown one happened to be in the unlocked station wagon at that time.
I prefer the diversity and I'd buy any of the angels. When I was younger, I had mostly white dolls, although I'm black. I really didn't care what my doll's skin looked like as long as she was pretty. I buy my niece ethnic dolls mostly, because she already has so many white dolls. She's only three though so most of the time there isn't much of a choice, but to get a white one. My niece will play with any doll and she hasn't really identified with a specific ethnicity. We like for her to have choices and not feel any type of way about one over another.
I like diversity. I can't say whether I prefered dolls of different ethnicity, colour, etc. when I was a kid. I was a girl who didn't want/like dolls, so any dolls I had were given to me by well meaning, but mistaken adults. Based on dolls I was given I have to agree with thegirlwiththecamera. I was a fair skinned red-haired kid, and received probably as many red-haired dolls as there were on the market.
Then again my first best friends were black, so maybe different colours were just normal for me.