Since my eldest daughter's birth, I have been searching for an Asian doll, frankly I have been searching for a nice variety of multicultural dolls for three and a half years now. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that most toy stores have a ridiculously small selection, majority of their dolls are blonde with blue eyes. I was able to find a beautiful African-American doll that my daughter absolutely adores but I haven't seen any Asian dolls, the ones that have Asian features, not just black eyes and black hair, except for one "corelle" doll, this doll was expensive and not easily washable, the Mastermind store staff said that it might not survive the washing machine...
Toronto is the most multicultural city according to U.N., yet the doll selection doesn't reflect such diversity, I wonder why?
I did discover something interesting not long ago, most Ontario Early Years Centres have toy/furniture/teaching materials catalogues that they regularly order from, these catalogues include many varieties of beautiful Ethnic dolls (both male and female), they're even anatomically correct and fully washable, not to mention durable! If you ask nicely, they'll show you the catalogue and order a doll for you!
Here's an interesting Toronto Star article on this subject.
5 comments:
I have this same problem. My aunt would buy my sister and I Black dolls from New York. She would send them up for our birthdays since we couldn't find any here. That was about 30 years ago. 30 years later I have a daughter and still have a hard time finding her dolls that look like her or her friends? Crazy. I noticed that Toys R Us advertised a few dolls with different ethnicities but they weren't in stock at the Toys R Us I went to. Pickings are slim! We ended up buying my daughter the Corelle doll from Scooter Girl.
Thanks for your comment! I went to Toys'R'us at Dufferin Mall and the only "Ethnic" dolls I found were made by Bratz... creeepy.. Did you have a look at the OEYC catalogue yet?
I like your online store, I added the link to my "moms/dads preneurs" section.
Thanks so much Irina! I appreciate the add on the blog.
I haven't looked at the OEYC catalogue but I will definitely keep that in mine. The Bratz dolls are really odd and creepy. I'm sure Ione will LOVE them when she's older :-/
You're welcome Michelle, I can't wait for you to start posting on your new blog :)
I know this is a very delayed response, but your article really resonated with me...even a year later! I have a two and a half year old Black child, and have also been shocked at the paucity of available ethnic dolls for her! I recently bought a few multi racial dolls (Black, Hispanic and Asian), from an online dealer, http://www.dollslikeme.com/. They ship to Canada, and the dolls are just beautiful. 'Hope this helps.
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