Navigating DEIJ as a Parent: Diverse Dolls
A Mother’s Search
It all began when I was looking for my daughter’s Christmas and birthday gifts. Pretend play has gradually become a prominent way my daughter enjoys entertaining herself and I realized that much of the toys she had to engage in this were animals. My daughter is never short of imaginative ideas for her play scenarios, there was in fact, one day when she dragged our space heater (unplugged) over to the kitchen where I was and announced: “This is my daughter!” In any case, I thought it might be a good idea to have a mix of dolls that represented actual people for her to play with, so the search began. My daughter is biracial, I am of Thai-Chinese ethnicity and my husband is white. I knew none of these dolls would look anything like her, but I at least wanted dolls that represented my side of the family and her friends who are of many different races. I was pretty disheartened when I spent hours in front of my computer just searching, trying different sites, different search terms, and finding very little.
Calling for Help: Yellow-Skinned Dolls
I decided to be vulnerable and open up about this struggle to find diverse dolls on social media. I was certain that I had friends, fellow parents, who had gone through the same thing and perhaps already had some resources. I received many responses and I want to consolidate the list of shared ideas and resources in another post soon. However, in this post, I would like to share something else that came out of this experience. A dear friend, also of Asian descent, responded to my post to say she had discovered an Asian family set by Fisher-Price (Mattel) and had already ordered them for her son. The dolls arrived a few weeks later and I got an email from her. Upon opening the box she discovered that these dolls meant to represent an Asian family had yellow skin. I asked if I could contact Fisher-Price on her behalf, and I did.
The Letter
I felt a whole range of emotions when I learned of these dolls. Anger, disappointment, disbelief…writing this letter to Fisher-Price/Mattel wasn’t easy, I was upset. I sought some guidance from Debbie LeeKeenan, who had just keynoted the Early Years Exchange conference that I organize, and she told me this:
write from the heart- as a parent
assume they do not know/may not realize why this is offensive
importance of accurate representation- skin tones
why "yellow" is offensive
mirrors and windows (we need to provide children a reflection of their identity (mirrors) as well as opportunities to learn about others (windows))
Here is what I ended up sending and I thank everyone who had eyes on this letter and helped me craft it:
Dear Mattel/Fisher Price,
Hello, my name is Pana Asavavatana and I am writing on behalf of a friend who recently purchased your Little People Asian Friends product. My friend and I are both of Asian descent and were both thrilled to find that you had created this set because as Asian parents, we have struggled to find toys that represent our families and our children. Your product seemed to be an ideal addition to our home toy collections, except when my friend received her set, she was very disappointed to see that the skin color of these dolls was yellow. This prevented me from purchasing the product myself.
As an Asian, a parent, and an early childhood educator, I implore you to please make a change to this aspect of your Little People Asian Friends product, or any product that is meant to represent the Asian community. The color yellow as a description and representation of Asian skin color has historical links to the oppression of Asians. It was first created to describe the Asian race so that we could be categorized as inferior or “less than” the “white” race. Moreover, our skin is not yellow, it never has been, and never will be. I cannot allow my child to feel that this representation of her racial identity is acceptable because it isn’t, it never has been, and in today’s world, it clearly should not be. We have come too far, to take this step backward in time.
Young children learn these societal messages very early on, and stereotypes can form very easily. Children need to see representation of themselves in the toys and books they interact with. Your company clearly understands this because you have this product and other products aimed at representation. I appreciate that this step has been taken, however, I do hope you will consider making changes to your product so that it does not reinforce historical stereotypes, in this case, that Asians have yellow skin.
Respectfully,
Pana Asavavatana
The Reply
While a part of me never actually expected a response, I did remain hopeful I would hear back. I wrote through Facebook Messenger, and it took about 5 days for a response, which in my mind is actually pretty timely. Here is what they said:
Thanks so much for taking the time to reach out and share your feedback. We’re so sorry to hear about your disappointment with the skin tone on your figures and we understand your concerns. Feedback like yours is very important because it helps us identify areas that require more of our attention. Rest assured that these changes have already been addressed in the line and the new figures are currently hitting shelves.
I am grateful I got a response and that this issue is already being addressed. My goal for this post was to share my personal experience. Representation is important, our words and actions as adults are teaching children every day how to view people and the world around them. I know that there is much more to come and much more I have to learn. Thanks for reading.