Have you ever looked at your barbie doll and thought, damn, I wish I looked this good? Well that is what Lammily have tried to fix with the new real women make over they have given their brand of barbie dolls. The new Lammily doll comes with a chunky frame, curvy arms and legs and believe it or not, feet that aren't shaped like high heels.
We all know barbie well, and whether you are boy or a girl, we have all played with one at some point in our lives, though when did we start vomiting as Children to look like her? I don't personally remember throwing up into my bathroom toilet whilst holding my doll as a three year old thinking "Just a few more days and I will be small enough to be like you Geraldine"...Yes my barbie's always had horrid names.
Of course I agree with Lammily's aim, to give young girls a view of what a real woman looks like, and the variety between body shapes in their barbie dolls, could be the thing to show a healthy variety of diversity. I do not, however, agree with the extremes in which Lammily has gone to. The new Lammily doll comes with accessories such as tattoos and glasses which in this day and age are the norm and shouldn't be something we are ashamed of, however the doll also comes with the added features of attachable freckles, scars bruises and cellulite. Oh yes you heard right. Cellulite.
The bane of most female women existence, cellulite, acne and stretch marks have been added to the package in the form of stickers.
Of course my jaw dropped at this fact, what child wants to stick these things on their dolls? Of course it again promotes diversity and helps children to accept differences between their friends, but yet again I seem to question why would children want this? I fight these things everyday, and have learnt to accept them on my body as a womanly feature, and I did this at a young age with a simple conversation with my mum and my teachings from primary school.
Yet I never once wished that barbie had them too. Besides my stretch marks never fall off after the glue has run out on the sticker. Someone must have super glued mine on.
I love the idea of a larger barbie, and I personally wish Lammily luck in their investment in this doll. I do wish that the world was more accepting of diversity and maybe small moves in the direction of dolls could be a great starting point.
I think the doll is a good size and the reaction from the children testing the doll as shown in a published video in TIME seem to be positive. Many of the children compare the doll to their relatives and are fascinated by the fact that barbie has in fact got toes. Though one point I do take from this video is that when asked which barbie they prefer, they only go for the Lammily doll as they don't in fact own it. Not the fact that the doll is more real.
I do know one thing, that children do promote diversity with their Toys, with Disney bringing in their diverse princesses and many company's jumping on the diversity band wagon, but above all children will want nothing more than as many dolls as they can get out of Toys R Us after throwing a crying fit on the floor and shouting loudly to other parents that they don't love you anymore until you cripple in defeat.
My main point from all of this is that the doll itself is great, and I love her curvy size and quite lovely updated clothes. I just don't think we should be pushing insecurities on children at a young age. I don't want my child to be drawing cellulite on their legs with a magic marker, or in fact creating scars on their body to be like barbie. If you disagree with the fact that this could happen, just think. Lammily are only creating this doll to stop children from getting anorexia to be like barbie.
Well whether it's a good idea or not I congratulate Lammily on their new doll and their ground breaking ideas, but diversity or not i'm off to watch Barbie's dream house on Netflix. That girl has the biggest closet...hmm maybe I should break through the wall to be like barbie? Well that's a whole new idea.
