Dolls now come in all races, colors
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CHICAGO — One girl is black, the second white. But Allister Byrd and Samantha Arvin say the same thing when it comes to dolls.
They love them in any color: black, white, brown, you name it.
Toy makers are taking note with new doll lines that are more diverse than ever, including the first multiracial Barbie, which was on display last week at the American International Toy Fair in New York. A Mattel spokeswoman says the new Barbie could be viewed as black, Asian and Hispanic — a "mix of cultures in one doll."
Kids like Allister and Samantha are thrilled, even if some adults are still getting used to the idea.
"Having different races is a lot funner," says 9-year-old Allister, who is black and lives in O'Fallon, Ill.
Samantha, a white 10-year-old who lives across the Mississippi River in suburban St. Louis, agrees. At Christmas, she asked for a third black Barbie so she could recreate her favorite music group — Destiny's Child.
"It would be really boring if there were all white people," says the fourth-grader, who also likes her dolls to portray people she knows — from her half-Asian cousins to classmates of all races.
Adrienne Hymes, a Los Angeles doll maker, says she's definitely seen more demand for dolls that aren't white in the past year.
"I just chalk it up to people being more open-minded now," says Hymes, who began making her dolls, now sold as a line called Hymakins, when she was a child.
On her Web site, customers can choose everything from skin color — buff to light, medium and dark brown — to hair type and styles.
Some dolls of different races and ethnicities, including black Barbie, have been around for years. But industry experts say an increased demand and awareness of other cultures have spawned a new wave of dolls.
Sometimes they have a historical theme. The popular American Girl doll company makes Addy Walker, a fictional character said to be a freed slave from the Civil War era, and Josefina Montoya, a Hispanic doll from colonial New Mexico.
There are also new lines with more modern themes, including the Yue Sai Wa Wa Asian fashion doll and the Get Real Girls.
The latter is a line of six dolls from a variety of backgrounds who do everything from snowboard to play basketball.
At least one new line, the Ghetto Kids, was criticized by some parents and TV commentators because its packaging included hard-hitting doll "biographies" that mentioned parents who were drug addicts, or who abandoned and even sold their children.
Officials at Chicago-based Teddi's Toys, who created the dolls, have since removed some of the made-up doll background. But they're keeping the Ghetto Kids name as an attention grabber.
They also hope information on their Web site, including a cartoon series, will spur parents to talk to kids about such topics as smoking, guns and teen-age pregnancy.
"It's real life, real time," says company founder Tommy Perez, who unveiled a Jewish Ghetto Kid at the New York toy fair.
"It doesn't pull many punches."