Do you get tired of the same options for dolls at your local big box store? Maybe they have too much makeup or not enough clothes. Somewhere along the way dolls started to reflect the culture we live in and that is not always a good thing.
Growing up dolls were simple and we made them what we wanted them to be. We created clothes for them, cut their hair, pretended they were a veterinarian who took care of our animals. Now we have Bratz, Barbies, and Disney dolls which are based on fantasy and fictional characters. This isn’t a bad thing, but can’t we do a little better?
Wendy Tsao believes we can and she started creating dolls based on real-life people who are heroes. She believes that these heroes offer “inspiring stories of courage, intelligence, strength and uniqueness. Could children learn about and be inspired by them through toys?”
She tells the story on her site of being inspired by Sonja Singh’s Tree Change Dolls™. “In this project, I repainted and reclothed the manufactured dolls into the likeness of real, inspiring women – as young girls. As a parent, I’d love for my child to play with a young J.K. Rowling or Malala and have conversations about them.” So far she’s created dolls inspired by Malala, J.K. Rowling, Waris Dirie, and Jane Goodall, to name a few.
How awesome would it be for girls to play with dolls that show them what they can be and achieve? What about dolls that portray real-life role models we actually want our children to emulate? Wendy asks, “What inspiring person would you like to imagine as a doll?” Tell us who you would like to see made into a doll for your child.
