Thursday, February 11, 2010

Babies, babies, everywhere!



We now (quite proudly!) have a collection of five black baby dolls in our home.



I'd like to introduce them to you, minus one of them whose home is in the diaper bag. (You know, my Mary Poppins style bag that is full of magical things...well, except a spoon full of sugar).


Starting on the left, we have Molly, who came to my daughter on her first Christmas (love Grandpa and Grandma!). Molly got her name from one of the children I used to nanny. My daughter has licked Molly's face on numerous occasions and has used the "tail" on Molly's hat to swing her round and round and round until she's released into the air and lands on the floor, on the couch, or in a basket full of toys.


Next we have Flora Bama. When my daughter was four months old, we took a family vacation to Gulf Shores, AL to visit my aunt and uncle. Of course we HAD to go the outlet mall which included a Carter's store. Much to my surprise and delight, I found this gem of a doll. She's brown, meant to cover any other race but white, but I didn't care. Flora got her name from the bar that straddles the Florida and Alabama border which was just a short walk from my aunt and uncle's condo building.


The biggest and brownist of the bunch still has no name. (Have any of you seen Coraline? Ok, totally creepy movie, but the little boy in it is called Whyborn because his family can't understand why he was born. Yeah, terribly mean, but every time I think to name this baby doll, I think of this). This friend arrived this past Christmas from Santa. She has fabulous hair and can wear preemie clothes. (Guess who has been having a blast finding tiny baby outfits at Kohl's for her daughter's doll?)


Finally, there's Tiana who came from my daughter's uncle on her first birthday. Tiana is not named after the Disney Princess. It's just the name she came with. Easy!


I look forward to our collection of baby dolls growing. Perhaps we'll even branch out and find dolls of other races. There's no issue finding a white doll. However, finding dolls who are Asian, for example, is even more of a challenge than finding a doll who is black.

I won't get on a rant again about the domination of white skin in children's books, toys, games, ads, etc., and to combat my previous complaints, I called on some online friends to help me find websites selling dolls that look like my daughter and perhaps your kids, too.

Pattycake Dolls

Lakeshore Learning

Amazon

Corolle

blabla

American Girl

Happy shopping!

1 comment:

  1. Wow! Thanks for the great list - I especially love Pattycake Dolls. I've bookmarked it!

    ReplyDelete

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