Our daughter is six years old and has never really been into dolls. She came home to us when she was two, and immediately had all these exciting toys competing for her attention. We had a couple of dolls waiting for her, but what interested her the most were the toys being played with by her new older brother! Legos, Duplos, trains, cars, blocks, action figures, etc. were way more interesting to her than a doll that didn't do anything. So even though I had carefully chosen a beautiful handmade doll for her even before we knew she was to be our daughter (and actually even before we knew we were having a daughter!), what she wanted was what her brother had. Her dolls have sat on a shelf for most of the last few years, until this summer when she started playing with one of them intermittently. My hope piqued a bit. I'm all for her playing with cars, blocks, and action figures, and encourage it in fact (Why does our society as a whole insist on genderizing toys??), but I so enjoyed playing with dolls as a girl and wanted her to experience some of that joy, too.
About a month ago I read a posting on Facebook from an acquaintance of mine about dolls that were from different countries. Immediately my interest was piqued. (How often does one get to use the word piqued, and I just used it twice in one sitting! Now three times!) I asked her for more information about them and here is the site: http://hearts4heartsgirls.com/. Finding dolls (baby dolls, doll house dolls, Playmobil, action figures) that have brown skin is easier than it used to be, but finding dolls that are from particular cultural or ethnic backgrounds is much more difficult. To my delight, Playmate Toys has partnered with World Vision to create beautiful, multicultural dolls from around the world!
The dolls are supposed to be around ten years of age and have a story that goes with them, modeled after real girls from her country of origin. There is a doll from Laos, India, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Belarus, Brazil, and then three from the USA, one of them being Native American. (I wish it said which tribe she was from, but that's another posting for another day!) And if the concept of these dolls isn't enough to grab your attention, the price will be! They can be found at many major retailers around the country for less than $25! Compare that with the price of American Girl dolls!
Well, I decided to try the doll thing one more time with our daughter. When we were at the store together a few weeks ago I brought her down the doll aisle and showed her these dolls. She grabbed the girl from Afghanistan, held the box tight to her chest, and begged me to buy it! (Sold!) After much talk, she reluctantly agreed to put the doll back with her friends on the shelf, and then my husband and I went back to the store later that week and bought one for her for Christmas!
Our daughter still prefers Legos over doll's leggings, but she is enjoying her beautiful new doll very much!
About a month ago I read a posting on Facebook from an acquaintance of mine about dolls that were from different countries. Immediately my interest was piqued. (How often does one get to use the word piqued, and I just used it twice in one sitting! Now three times!) I asked her for more information about them and here is the site: http://hearts4heartsgirls.com/. Finding dolls (baby dolls, doll house dolls, Playmobil, action figures) that have brown skin is easier than it used to be, but finding dolls that are from particular cultural or ethnic backgrounds is much more difficult. To my delight, Playmate Toys has partnered with World Vision to create beautiful, multicultural dolls from around the world!
The dolls are supposed to be around ten years of age and have a story that goes with them, modeled after real girls from her country of origin. There is a doll from Laos, India, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Belarus, Brazil, and then three from the USA, one of them being Native American. (I wish it said which tribe she was from, but that's another posting for another day!) And if the concept of these dolls isn't enough to grab your attention, the price will be! They can be found at many major retailers around the country for less than $25! Compare that with the price of American Girl dolls!
Well, I decided to try the doll thing one more time with our daughter. When we were at the store together a few weeks ago I brought her down the doll aisle and showed her these dolls. She grabbed the girl from Afghanistan, held the box tight to her chest, and begged me to buy it! (Sold!) After much talk, she reluctantly agreed to put the doll back with her friends on the shelf, and then my husband and I went back to the store later that week and bought one for her for Christmas!
Our daughter still prefers Legos over doll's leggings, but she is enjoying her beautiful new doll very much!
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