If I've learned anything from my daughter when she pages through a toy store catalog, it's that kids like to have toys that look like them! And now all the little kids who were forced to go bald -- from cancer or some other disease -- have a new friend in the folks at American Girl.
The company has introduced its first ever bald doll for kids to cuddle! They come in a variety of skin tones so every kid gets one who looks just like them. Oh, and if you've already shelled out the mega bucks to get your kiddo an American Girl doll that has locks, they'll retro-fit the body with a new hairless head. How cool is that?
Of course we've already heard that Mattel is giving kids Bald Barbie sometime in the next year, so this isn't exactly breaking ground, but that doesn't make this announcement from American Girl any less noteworthy. I say the more the merrier!
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This is just want kids want. If you don't believe me, let me just relate a revelation I had during the "girly" LEGO debate a few months back. When I asked my daughter why she liked them, she didn't talk about the pink that had parents all up in arms. She just wanted minifigures that looked LIKE HER. Can you blame her?
I look at bald dolls much the way I do multicultural dolls. The more the toys on the shelves represent the many different kids who will be playing with them, the better message we are sending to our kids. It's a subtle way to teach kids that being "different" doesn't make them weird. That applies to the kid who plays with something that looks like them ... and it applies to other kids too.
As humans, that which is different scares us. So imagine the daycare that stocks a bald American Girl or bald Barbie. Those kids will -- hopefully -- be more likely to encounter a bald child in the future and react with kindness. Because to them, baldness will be familiar.
Will you be buying a bald American Girl for a kid in your life?
Image via American Girl Facebook
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Comments 26
I think it's creepy.
My father-in-law has a sign that says, "Bald is beautiful. God only made so many perfect heads, the rest He covered with hair!" I am all for this, I think it's great.
There is a big difference between a big hairy mole and acne zizzler. You get those as you get older. Dolls are for young kids and they don't strive to look like a doll but it's more that they can relate to someone/something who's like them.
And creepy? What a rotten thing to say about being a bald child. Sometimes I wonder about mankind.
I think this is a great idea. Many parents buy American Girl dolls for children so they'll have one that looks like them. I got "Molly" when I was a kid the year I got glasses--my parents thought it would help me feel better about wearing them if I had the only American Girl doll (historical one) that wore glasses. I loved her to peices. I still have her, as an adult, as well as one of the AG baby dolls. They're a great investment and they last forever. I'm sure a little girl with cancer (or a little boy, if he is so inclined) would love to have a doll that looked like them. Especially younger children--the doll could go through the same experiences they're going through, and make the process much less scary.
a few years ago they had a homeless AG doll. It wasn't so that girls could imagine and play at being homeless rather the hope was that through play children would learn compassion and awareness for the fact that there are children who are homeless. Sooooo even even if the doll does not look like a child it is bought for it may help the child come to terms with the idea that there are kids they may come across with certain factors that cause them not to have hair.