A Girl Like Me

Artist Loanne Hizo Ostlie Creates Genuinely Diverse Barbie Mods
http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/10/28/diverse-barbies-artist/


In addition to having a reputation for negatively affecting girls' body images, Barbies don't do a particularly good job of representing diversity either. In fact, a new black Barbie caught quite a bit of flak for her hair, which many people thought was a step backward, since it was straight and light brown.

But artist Loanne Hizo Ostlie has been modifying the dolls for over 10 years,
and what she comes up with are much more diverse and realistic-looking, even if
they do still have cat eyes and tiny waists. Especially impressive is her ability to change the hair of a doll -- when we were kids all we ever managed to do was accidentally cut it so short that Barbie looked like a victim of a gruesome combination of hair plugs and electroshock therapy.

Loanne has a Web site with over 300 mods of Barbie Skipper and even a few Kens.



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Here's my 2 cents:

I personally love the dolls and do believe that they are a step in the right direction. Our girls need to see images of real life women and toys that look like that. If we have dolls like these made available to our girls we might not have issues like these

I want my nieces and cousins and future children to pick the Black Doll !

What do you think?

i absolutely love the dolls!!!!

Asolutely would buy them...they are so beautiful! A shame that Mattel hasn't gotten on board, but WOOT WOOT for Loanne; may her sales quadruple!!!

I would buy the dolls purely on principle

I am in love with the 3rd and 4th dolls..i want one

I want a doll for myself! lol

I wish they had these when I was younger!!! I had all kinds of doll (white barbies, Pocahontas, life size, etc) but none had hair like mine.

I love how they have different skin tones, face shapes, hair types, nose types, eyes, etc. I like how they paid attention to the fact that black people come in different shades with different faces and hair types. Like one has a wide nose and wide eyes with light brown skin, and another has dark brown skin and a thinner nose. I LOVE IT!!

It's funny my parents always bought us black dolls when we were little. That was in the early seventy's. I just figured all black families purchased toys that looked like their children. I didn't learn of the significance until i was a teenager.

I would love to purchase these dolls they are definitely a step in the right direction. I think we also have to teach our children what reality is because toys and tv and magazines are not reality. it is separate world with a skewed perception.

OMG!! I love these dolls...They are so unique and pretty...All of these shades of beauty is wonderful....

If I had a little girl to give them too I would definitely give them to her. These are way better than the black Barbies Mattel created for the S.I.S line. These look like real black women, with a variety of features in different shapes, sizes and shades.

does anybody remember the cabbage patch black kids that had curly, afro hair??? they came out in the late 80s. i remember the first time i saw them, i thought they were so pretty!! they had dark skin that was so chocolaty and pretty!! i remember putting her and the brother at number ONE on my christmas list that year! in fact, they are still in my room!!!

I recently bought a black doll with curly, coily, afro hair for my sister, she loves it as much as her other dolls. She has always had a diverse collection of dolls and still lives in the Caribbean where the selection of dolls have become much more versatile.

I agree that the Barbie brand of African dolls stick true to their European lineage of facial features and hair texture. Hence why I don't purchase these dolls and go for ones that represent each ethnicity as closely as possible. I think it's important that kids have contact with all ethnic backgrounds and are raised to respect, treasure and love who they are.

Humans are a beautiful collage of colours, ideas, and cultures and it is sad to see how in this video, we are still negatively internalising our beautiful identity.

I could just see these dolls doing wonders for little girls self esteem. While it is not the job of a doll maker or a doll to build the self esteem of our girls it definitely can't hurt to see dolls that look like you. If I find these dolls I will be making a number of purchases for my nieces.

It makes me smile seeing these dolls.....My niece is two and I want to only purchase dolls that show the true ethnicity of our culture. They are all to cute!!!!

I like 'em! I would have preferred those as a child

I saw the dolls a few days ago and fell in love with the one with the dreads.

I think these dolls are beautiful. I grew up with nothing but african american dolls, and I would like to believe that it had an impact on me being the confident black woman I am today. It will aide in little girls having a positive self image. I would get all of these for myself and I don't even have kids...lol =)

I'm with you Lovelycurls...your never too old for dolls!

They are beautiful and could easily be displayed in my home. Where might one purchase these dolls?

so, so Beautiful

I heard about the black Barbie, which actually isn't Barbie it's more like her friends. I don't know if I would buy them for my daughter because it seems that there are still some stereotypical things planned for the line. But, I'm sure it would be something that would be given to her as a gift. It's funny because I had black dolls when I was little (when they were available), but they never looked like me so I would take the white dolls and say they were light-skinned so they would be my baby. I have found that it is hard to find black dolls in my area because all the Caucasian parents are buying them for their children. I want my daughter to see dolls that look like her, her mommy, her grands, aunties, etc. We all look different.