October sees the arrival of Global Diversity Awareness Month, bringing an important opportunity to celebrate the wonderful differences that make our world so exciting.
When you’re a parent, learning about campaigns like this can make you pause and think about how these issues affect your own family. You might wonder how your own child is impacted by their culture and background. Have they noticed differences like skin colour in their own small world? How can you talk to them about diversity and difference?
You might also catch a glimpse of their toys and think: does my child’s toybox reflect the world around them? Does my child have a doll that looks like them? Where can I find dolls that look like my child? Do dolls need to match my child’s skin tone? And how much do these choices really matter?
Picture a child with light brown skin playing with a doll whose skin perfectly matches their own. It sounds like a simple thing, but seeing and playing with dolls that look like themselves can be so meaningful and actually help children to develop their early sense of belonging.
Here’s why representation matters and how to find eco-friendly diverse dolls with different skin tones.
Why does representation in toys matter for children?
Children need to see themselves reflected in the toys, books and other media. Playing in, and hearing stories about, make-believe worlds that mirror their own builds their sense of belonging and confidence. It’s also important to give them access to toys and characters that introduce them to a wider world. Children develop self-confidence from playing with dolls who look like them. They can also learn how to experience the wider world from playing with dolls that look all sorts of different ways, including representing different genders and having various skin tones and physical differences.
This can feel particularly important for multi-heritage families - it’s not easy to find a dolls house family that reflects your own, but Tender Leaf offer a ‘choose your own family’ option as well as some gorgeous hand-painted doll families with varied skin tones.
If you’re wondering about specific ways that you can talk to toddlers about race and difference, then head to our post all about how to have small conversations that really matter.
What skin tones do your dolls come in?
We have created a huge collection of sustainably, ethically produced dolls with different skin tones. These ranges have been thoughtfully designed for families who want to provide dolls that don’t only have different skin tones, but have also been ethically and sustainably produced. You can read about our Earth-friendly processes here.
If you’d like your child to have a diverse rag doll, large wooden doll, dolls house dolls or a tiny pocket-sized doll, here are some gorgeous dolls with brown skin, black skin and white skin as well as different hair colours.
Diverse sustainable dolls house dolls
Fill your dolls house with dolls that reflect our diverse world. Finding a dolls-house family that reflects your own multi-ethnic or dual-heritage household isn't always easy. Here you can find dolls house dolls with white, light brown and brown skin. There’s a family with varied skin tones and individual dolls with different skin colours, so you can build a family to match your own!
The Hummingbird family: a family with brown and black skin tones.
The Forrester family - Mr Forrester, Mrs Forrester and the baby and Ayana - are poseable dolls house dolls with brown skin.
The Sunny Doll family: a dolls house family with light brown skin.
Lola and Ferne are large 25 cm poseable wooden dolls with different skin tones that fit perfectly in Mulberry Mansion.
If you’d like to play with paper versions of Lola and Ferne, head to this collection of free printable activities for October where you’ll find dress up dolls to print, snip and dress up at home!
Build your own family by choosing individual dolls with different skin tones:
Dolls house dolls with white / light skin
Dolls house dolls with light brown skin
Dolls house dolls with medium brown skin
Dolls house dolls with dark brown / black skin
Dolls house families with no skin tones - choose between the Doll family and the Leaf family.
Tiny diverse dolls with big personalities.
Little Peeps are mini cuties available with all sorts of skin tones, hair colours (find a doll with red hair) and quirky characters (like a mermaid doll and an ice cream doll!)
Do children need dolls that look like them?
Playing with dolls might look like cuddling, cooing, chatting, feeding and changing, but this kind of play is powerful. A child can explore nurturing, practise social skills and work through big feelings, all by playing with a doll. And if that doll also shares a skin tone with the child, this experience can hold even more weight. When a child is given a doll that looks like them, they can see it as an extension of themselves. If a brown-skinned child only ever sees white-skinned dolls, they may feel less represented. But add dolls that look like them to their toy room and they can see themselves as fitting in: ‘we belong here!’
“I think that having varied toys… helps them to be less concerned about the differences in the world around them,” explains Libby, mum of two dual-heritage boys. Read more about the role diverse toys play in their family (and a real family’s review of Tender Leaf’s Fire Engine playset) in Playing Together: Why Representation in Toys Matters.