I Want the White Doll

Growing up, I loved Barbie.  I can even remember a time when my mother, trying to get me to see my own beauty, thought she would surprise me with a black doll while shopping one day;  to her surprise and embarrassment, she pulled the black doll off the shelf, causing a complete meltdown of screaming in the middle of the floor, "Mommy I want the white doll, I want the white doll."  My mother was truly embarrassed and proceeded to pick me up and march me right out of that store.  You can only imagine what happened next as it was a different time back then and mothers did not believe in their children throwing fits in the middle of the floor in a store of all places.

My mother still recalls this incident even into my adulthood.  She says she is still hurt by the fact that her daughter rejected the black doll and in turn rejected her own beauty. I still remember preferring the white dolls over the black dolls as a child.  I just thought they were more beautiful and I even remember wishing and praying for long straight hair.  When I learned Mattel released a new line of African American, So In Style dolls, I was very excited!

I also discovered African American mom, Stacey McBride-Irby, who also wanted her daughter to grow up seeing beautiful images of black people reflected in her toys, was the designer of the So In Style Line.

While I celebrate the accomplishment of McBride-Irby and think her creations are beautiful, I am a little saddened by the fact that all of these dolls have silky straight hair unless you curl it or twist it with one of the doll's styling tools.  I am thankful to see these dolls appear in a variety of skin tones as we all know black beauty comes in many different packages and shades.  I would also like to see our varying types of beauty reflected in their hair and sincerely hope Mattel and MicBride-Irby will consider developing dolls with naturally textured hair for future lines.