What a Barbie Doll Taught Me About Diversity in Toys

I took C to Target today to pick out a new toy. She absolutely loves to cook and she loves Play-Doh, so this Spaghetti Chef Barbie with Play-Doh was a MUST. As she happily walked away with her new doll, I noticed a Caucasian Spaghetti Chef doll right next to the one we bought. Exact same doll. But this one was not on clearance. Odd.

I looked around quickly and noticed that this seemed to be the case for many dolls with brown skin. Maybe this was some random fluke, but I have a feeling that it wasn't. In fact, the possibility that this could be the norm concerns me.

As parents, we all work hard to teach our children to value themselves as they are, to appreciate the beauty of diversity​, and to respect others. We explain that everyone is different, but our differences don't define us. We emphasize that no color is better than another.

And then stores do this...

What a Coloring Kit Taught Me About Diversity in Toys

I try to find as many things as possible to keep my oldest entertained while C is at therapy. When my mom was in town, she bought this coloring kit for my oldest, and yesterday, we took it to therapy so she had something to do.

As my oldest stared coloring a picture of a couple ballerinas, she sighed loudly. I looked over at her and noticed a hint of frustration on her face. "What's the problem?" I asked.

"Well, this only has peach color for the ballerina's skin. I wanted the ballerina to have brown skin," she replied. "I will just wait till I get home. The ballerinas can only have blonde hair anyway," she said with a quick roll of her eyes.

I was caught off guard, because the shades of markers in a coloring kit had never really mattered to me growing up. Maybe because there always was a peach color that represented me.

It reminded me of the incident the other week when C picked out a Barbie on clearance while the identical Barbie with lighter skin was full price.

I've been buying toys for 10 years and playing with them for even longer, and if it weren't for my own children and their perceptiveness, I would not notice most of this -- unfortunately.

Our children deserve to be represented in the toys they play with. And while we have come a long way -- a boy American Girl Doll, dolls with disabilities, etc. -- we still have a long way to go.