Barbie, LEGO Diversity Goals Have Big Impact on Girls of Color

Oct. 28, 2021 -- Last year, connected a travel to Disney Springs, the buying analyzable astatine Walt Disney World successful Orlando, FL, Brianna Watson, a woman and motherhood blogger, and her then-3-year-old daughter, Ari, walked by the Lego Store, wherever Mickey Mouse, Maleficent, and different characters were featured successful Lego form.

“I privation some!” Ari exclaimed excitedly.

Ari, who Watson, 29, describes arsenic “the explanation of girly girl” with a fondness for beauteous dresses and skirts, started pre-K successful August.

After spotting a container of Legos successful her classroom, it became wide to Watson that Ari’s involvement successful the operation toys ne'er waned. She began asking to get to school around 7:30 a.m., giving her fractional an hr of Lego play earlier people starts.

“It’s typically her by herself or with different boy, oregon her teacher volition spell implicit determination and play with her for a small bit,” Watson says.

While Legos are traditionally known arsenic being products “for boys,” Ari’s love for building Lego towers and castles isn’t needfully unique, according to caller probe commissioned by the Lego Group and carried retired by the Geena Davis Institute connected Gender successful Media.

Girls are often anxious to instrumentality portion successful each types of originative play, including STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)-related activities, similar building the Empire State Building utilizing marshmallows and toothpicks oregon making their ain unreality with water, ice, hairspray, and a Mason jar.

But galore suffer involvement arsenic they turn older, and wide societal beliefs about what constitutes girls’ vs. boys’ activities play a large role, findings show.

Today, women marque up adjacent to fractional of the U.S. workforce, but lone correspond 27% of STEM workers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Black (2%) and Hispanic (2%) women marque up little than 5% of workers successful STEM-related occupations, according to the National Science Foundation.

In efforts to combat these gender disparities, Lego launched its “Ready for Girls” campaign on Oct. 11, the United Nations’ International Day of the Girl Child.

Lego vows to region sex bias from its products and marketing, and it volition trial products with boys and girls, says Julia Goldin, main selling and merchandise serviceman for the Lego Group.

“We privation to marque Lego play much inclusive and guarantee that children’s originative ambitions -- some present and successful the aboriginal -- are not constricted by stereotypes,” Goldin says.

Lego is not unsocial successful its efforts. Mattel, the institution down the Barbie brand, is besides releasing a slew of products successful efforts to item diversity and animate young girls to research professions wherever women are underrepresented.

Seeing Yourself successful Your Play

Giving children the quality to spot themselves reflected successful their toys is critical, says Marland May, a elder manager of diverseness and inclusion wrong clinical trials and a erstwhile objective therapist.

May, 38, who is Afro-Caribbean, knows this firsthand arsenic the begetter of Afro-Latina triplets.

He and his wife, Anniella, who is of Argentine descent, are passionate astir raising their daughters, Alexa, Brielle, and Camila, 5, to emotion and embrace their multicultural background.

Raising bilingual daughters tin person its challenges if you unrecorded successful a predominantly achromatic vicinity successful Texas, wherever speaking Spanish isn’t ever celebrated, May says.

In July, conscionable up of the 2020 Olympics, Barbie released a doll modeled aft Naomi Osaka, the 24-year-old tennis prima who is Japanese and Haitian. May says this doll could beryllium a instrumentality to assistance his daughters -- and different girls of mixed backgrounds -- clasp bilingualism, a accomplishment that keeps the encephalon progressive and enhances children’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“Now you’re opening up thing wherever I tin say, ‘This doll tin speak two languages,’” May says.

“I tin hype that up arsenic thing that’s normal, truthful that erstwhile they spell and interact with their accepted American friends who are unilingual, it’s ‘You don’t talk 2 languages? That’s odd, due to the fact that my toys can.’”

For Black and brownish girls, it is peculiarly important to person dolls that bespeak their carnal attributes, helium says.

“Many girls, the archetypal happening they're going to do, too play with the doll, is effort to brushwood their hair, enactment their apparel on. They're going to go intimately acquainted with that doll’s body, makeup,” May says.

“You don’t ever privation a Black doll to person consecutive hair, due to the fact that past the communicative is going to be, ‘only beauteous erstwhile your hairsbreadth is consecutive and not curly.’”

But nowadays, uncovering a Barbie doll with curly hairsbreadth isn't challenging, fixed the information that Barbie is nary longer conscionable a slender blonde; she is besides JLO, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Ashley Graham.

Currently, Barbie dolls travel successful implicit 35 tegument tones, 94 hairstyles, and 9 body types, according to the company.

Fighting Harmful Stereotypes

Children of each races having toys that bespeak a assortment of tegument tones and hairsbreadth textures tin besides assistance successful combating negative associations of these characteristics that they whitethorn follow done assorted extracurricular factors, according to May.

“For a while, they started to admit darker-skinned girls with curlier, kinky hairsbreadth arsenic atrocious oregon arsenic negative, due to the fact that the shows they were exposed to painted them successful that light,” May says.

“How bash you combat that to a 3- to 5-year-old and marque it marque consciousness and alteration that narrative to thing that's positive? That’s been our travel passim these past mates of years.”

Barbie released a nationalist committedness to the Black community, vowing to summation Black representation, item Black relation models, and supply young Black with girls adjuvant resources.

The marque is taking its diversity efforts to the large surface arsenic well, with its caller animated Netflix musical, Barbie: Big City Big Dreams.

In the musical, Barbie “Malibu” Roberts goes to New York City for a performing arts summertime program, wherever she meets Barbie “Brooklyn” Roberts, who is Black. After discovering they stock a sanction and a passionateness for music, the roommates go accelerated friends arsenic they spell connected adventures astir the city.

Bridging the Gap

Similar to Lego, the Barbie marque is besides making efforts to present young girls to industries wherever women are underrepresented, including STEM.

The marque present has dolls representing implicit 200 career professions.

Last month, the institution released its archetypal ever “DJ Barbie,” designed to “shine a airy connected the value of women’s involvement successful the industry,” according to the company.

Women correspond 2% of music producers, according to a recent Statista survey connected sex practice successful the music industry.

And successful August, Barbie added different assemblage to its list: superheroes.

The institution released six dolls modeled aft real-life archetypal responders and women astatine the forefront of the combat against the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of these women is Sarah Gilbert, PhD, a prof of vaccinology astatine the University of Oxford and co-creator of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

“I americium passionate astir inspiring the adjacent procreation of girls into STEM careers and anticipation that children who spot my Barbie volition recognize however captious careers successful subject are to assistance the satellite astir us," Gilbert told The Guardian.

May says he’d beryllium thrilled if his girls determine to spell into STEM, which makes initiatives from companies similar Lego and Barbie truthful important.

“Do I privation them to combat sex bias for the remainder of their lives and beryllium seen arsenic little than, conscionable due to the fact that they are women successful the tract that’s typically dominated historically by men? Absolutely not,” May says. “Do I deliberation that Lego is doing an astonishing happening by introducing girls to creative play? Absolutely!”

Watson says that Ari expresses assorted ideas of what she wants to beryllium erstwhile she grows up.

Some days, she wants to beryllium a veterinarian. Other days, it’s a doctor. But Watson believes that Ari whitethorn prosecute thing successful the originative arts space.

“She likes to build with blocks. She likes to chopped and paste and draw. So, possibly immoderate benignant of engineering mightiness beryllium successful her future, but you ne'er know,” Watson says

But if her toys archer her anything, young Ari’s choices are endless.