Sunday, November 23, 2014

SELF-IMAGE: BARBIE vs. LAMMILY - The Queen Is Dead; Long Live The Queen!!!

by M Jvlian Simmons


The Barbie Doll

Most every little girl loves her dolls, whether it was made of the wooden clothespins and rags of yesteryear, or even made of today's plastic. 



And until recently, the go-to of dolls have been the 'Barbie' brand, an arbitrarily blond, impossibly slim reminder of perceived female inadequacies.

They've even tried to make her appear professionally mobile, but it all falls flat in the vat of pink that all her products are dipped in.

Its not really her fault, its just the way she was designed. 

Bratz dolls

Although in more recent years, we've been introduced to other brands like 'Bratz', and 'Monster' dolls, with the narrow exception of brands like 'American Girl' (pictured below), the initial problem remained unfixed.

American Girl dolls 

Monsters dolls 

They all still had impossibly slim and disproportionate figures and were difficult for lots of girls to relate to, as they all looked just like most girls don't. 



In an age where we can 3D print almost anything we can think of, the average girl still had not felt truly represented.
Lammily 

Enter, the LAMMILY doll, a realistically-proportioned 'fashion' doll that seems to go over "like gangbusters" when subjected to focus groups.

Nickolay Lamm, inventor of the Lammily doll. 

"I feel like a lot of toys are all about fantasy, like we as adults, we love that as well. 

Reality is cool; after all, it's all we have.

Why not we appreciate it more?

Even though it's not perfect, it's still beautiful."



The Lammily doll not only looks like an average 19 year old girl, but even has a fashion closet that would make Barbie blush, and decals, containing tattoos and (get this) blemishes like moles, freckles, scars, stitches, stretchmarks, acne breakouts, etc. to add that extra touch of uniqueness to her perfectly imperfect body. 

*mind blown*


Other pros of Lammily's contrasted appearance include an admittedly wider and shorter frame, non-heel angled feet with detailed toes, minimal makeup, a contrarily closed-mouthed smile (not unlike that of the Mona Lisa), better articulation (the joints move more), and loads of accessory products, that are not pink. 

Dare we dream a franchise of many ethnic and more hefty body types, male and female?

Let's hope!

The children of these focus groups however have indeed spoken, and apparently, they're ready for a new style of doll that's more like themselves. 

We're proud to present the "Lammily" Doll, hopefully soon to be on shelves near you!

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Make a donation, to help us create STARSHIP scholastic awardsand initiatives for innovation, in our city!