As a child, I remember playing with dolls that where beautiful. But they never looked like me. Their hair, features and skin tones did not match mine. I always wondered - if my Barbie doll is beautiful and it doesn’t look like me… does that mean that I am not pretty? This is a question I struggled with through my childhood into early adulthood. Even though I had an amazing mom that always told me how beautiful I was, all the images around me in the media contradicted this message. And seeing other young women in my community that did value their own beauty also did not help.
As an adult, while shopping with my own daughters, I was shocked to find that stores still did not have dolls that reflected the beauty of the ethnic community. There were a few dolls that would surface every now and again, but it was not very often. On the average, a young girl of an ethnic cultural background could not go to just any store and find a doll that looks like her. This is something that needs to change.
There has been a continuous problem in our community where we don’t seem to value our own beauty, history or heritage. It is something that has been a problem for a very long time. In articles, videos and news stories such as Black Girls Want White Dolls, What a Doll Tells Us About Race, Black Doll White Doll & A Girl Like Me - it is apparent that this is something that affects many children and adults; and that there is a need for positive community change.I have wanted to take-on the project of customizing dolls hair, to have the look and feel of styles and textures of African American & Mulit-Cultural (ethnic) women and girls, for a long time. From this came the Natural Girls United project that has now turned into a business, and is something that I hope will help to bring a positive view of what ethnic beauty is.
There is a serious need for our young girls to be able to have dolls that look like them. It is something that affects their self-esteem and confidence, and how they feel about themselves from an early age. There have been quite a few studies done (as noted above) that show that African American boys and girls often think of black dolls as bad and white dolls as good. Of course, this is not something that the parent is teaching their child. So why are they getting these mixed messages about good and bad skin color, or good and bad hair? It all has to do with the images they see as they grow up. If a child is constantly looking at images, dolls, television, books and magazines - and only seeing beauty as something or someone with non-ethnic features and someone that has long, straight hair - then they are going to assume that this is what beauty is. It is something that has hurt our young people for centuries. But each day we learn that it is important to show them and teach them that their beauty is indeed beautiful.
My goal is to have a doll line that ranges in skin tones from a light to dark complexions. I would like for there to be a variety of hair styles that represent the styles that can be seen in many ethnic cultures – Dreadlocks, Sisterloc’s, Loc’s, Afro’s, Braids, Twist, Cornrows, Curls and more. The dolls features should also represent the girls and women from ethnic backgrounds. Empowerment is a big driving force behind this project. Each doll should send a message of hope. There should be dolls that are doctors, artists, business women, teachers and more. A little girl should be able to look at their doll and say my doll looks like me and I also want to be a doctor when I grow up.
Karen Byrd Owner – Natural Girls United http://www.naturalgirlsunited.comOur Beauty Recognized...
