We all know Barbie is a little out of proportion with her 175cm height, 91 cm bust, 45 cm waist, 83 cm hips and 22 cm neck!  If she were a real woman she would be anorexic, unable to lift her head or menstruate, have a smaller waist than her head, only have room for half an intestine and liver and have to crawl to support her massively disproportionate body.  An infographic shows the difference between Barbie and the Lammilly doll.  Now it’s time to welcome the Lammilly doll, a more realistic version of Barbie.  A doll which was rapidly crowd funded in the US to the tune of over half a million dollars, and is challenging the body image ideals perpetuated by the children’s toy industry.  It comes with acne, cellulite and stretch mark accessories.  Refreshingly real…..representing the average, healthy 19 year old girl, and not just white girls! 

At the University of Sussex, a study by Helga Dittmar, found that young girls showed decreased self-esteem after being exposed to images of Barbie dolls and another study in the Netherlands by Doeschka Anschutz and Rutger Engels at Radbout University in the Netherlands similarly found that young girls had a decreased appetite after playing with thin dolls.

Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia have been frequently linked to social media and anecdotal reports from NZ eating disorder clinics suggest these disorders are on the rise. These disorders can lead to immune dysfunction, permanent physical damage, and death.  Can dolls like these really have a positive influence over female body image especially in the age of social media?  The Huffington Post has different ideas criticising the idea of Nikolay Lamm’s dolls and things like removeable cellulite stickers.

 

Lammilly successfully sold over 22,000 dolls when it launched in November, 2014, and that number continues to grow as the doll becomes available at retail locations.  It seems pretty clear that the inventor, Nikolay Lamm, has good intentions:

“I see ‘average’ as inclusive of all of us, not a standard which excludes.

I want to show that reality is beautiful.”

but whether it makes a REAL difference to REAL girls remains to be seen……