Dolls play an important role in child development; they foster empathy, develop communication skills, and allow children to role-play the world around them. At Let Toys Be Toys we believe that all toys are for all children and it’s the marketing that tells them if they are included or not: Mattel’s Creatable World dolls represent a really big step forward here. Picchi, Aimee. "Mattel's gender-neutral dolls are ready for the holidays, but shoppers may not be so sure". USA Today. Being creative requires a focus on your end goal, which in my case, would be the outcome of a project. In a world where ideas are a hot commodity, what is equally (if not more) important is the execution of that idea. If your idea is amazing but the execution is poor, then its intended audience will reject your idea. Staying true to yourself also means being open to adapting and evolving your vision to make the best and biggest impact. Rodriguez, Adrianna. "The company that created Barbie is introducing a line of gender-neutral dolls". USA Today . Retrieved 4 October 2019.

After the session, Dreger analyzed the parental response. “Adults get so tied up in the descriptions and definitions,” she said. “They jump to this idea of sexuality. They make themselves more anxious about it. For kids it’s much more intuitive.”Toy giant Mattel is launching a new range of dolls designed and marketed to appeal to boys and girls alike. Let Toys Be Toys campaigner Megan Perryman and her children take a look – has a major manufacturer really dared to rewrite the toy marketing script? On a basic level, the doll falls far short of actually embodying or even representing a nonbinary identity. “Gender-neutral,” the term Mattel uses in its marketing of the doll, is not, in fact, a term that many—any?—people use to describe themselves. They use “gender-fluid,” or genderqueer, or nonbinary, or nonconforming. These dolls reinforce the idea that gender is “playful” and easy to switch around, accusations often leveled at trans youths. [10] See also [ edit ] Imaginative language and motifs – stereotyped symbols and language are often used to target toys by gender, but the boxes steer clear of both. Interestingly, both children wanted a doll that looked like them; then as they began to play they became more imaginative. They played together for the first time in a while, sharing the clothes and accessories, and commenting on the different combinations each other made. They tried plenty of different options with both long and short hair.

Perhaps it’s surprising, then, that nobody has beaten Mattel to creating a gender-neutral doll. A deep Google search for such a toy turns up baby dolls or strange-looking plush creatures that don’t resemble any human who ever walked this earth. Nothing comes close to the Creatable World doll that Mattel has conjured up over the past two years. Hi Spiral! I know what you mean about the theme. Lammily got slammed for that, especially with the first release. I'm in the process of reviewing another little doll whose charm is *greatly* enhanced by the available themes, so I've been thinking a lot about this issue. I LOVE your princess/knight/dragon idea! It's brilliantly creative and would also allow a child to be free from pre-assigned gender roles. I think even dragon characters are often portrayed as male--especially if they're evil. That doesn't seem fair! Your idea would mix everything up! You should write to Mattel. ;) As a parent that ambivalence continued. My daughter received a cluster of Barbies for her fourth birthday which she adored with all her heart. I felt torn. I didn’t want to be the parent to deny my child a toy they clearly got so much enjoyment from, but equally the highly made-up, scantily clad, anatomically-impossible dolls could not have been further from my scruffy four year-old in grubby playclothes.a b Salam, Maya. "Mattel, Maker of Barbie, Debuts Gender-Neutral Dolls". The New York Times . Retrieved 31 January 2020. My biggest hurdle working on Creatable World was trying to open existing perceptions of feminine and masculine styles. Deep-ingrained societal gender signifiers such as color and hairstyle were particularly challenging. For too long a time, the color pink has been associated with girls, and blue for boys. Society has dictated that long hair signifies “feminine.” Even clothing isn’t sold by categories such as “pants” or “shirts,” but by gender. As a society, we are still at the early stages of breaking gender social constructs. The doll can have long hair or short, wear play clothes or party clothes, and crucially the child gets to decide if it’s a girl or a boy. The dolls are jointed, like an action figure, giving children more options for how to play with them. I would have sworn that I'd donated my Creatable World sets to the Goodwill when we moved last year. In the blurred flurry of clearing out the house, I let go of a lot of things that I never thought I would be able to part with. But when I was sorting through some moving boxes a few months ago, I found both of the sets! I guess they made the cut. It was extra-fun to find these dolls because I couldn't remember exactly which ones I'd chosen, and I love a good surprise!