Gifts for girls

The problems with current toys and the alternatives that are available

By Angela Espinoza, News Editor

No matter how one celebrates the holiday season, purchasing gifts for the modern girl has become an issue. Whether you are family, an educator, or even a babysitter, getting gifts for young girls nowadays is more complicated than just grabbing a Barbie off the shelves.

While sales of Barbie dolls have been dropping for the past several years—this year being particularly dismal—the Mattel moneymaker still remains the top-selling doll in the world. Barbie’s competition includes American Girl, Monster High, Bratz, and Disney’s own line of princess dolls. Each line remains popular with young girls, but they’re poorly marketed. Monster High and Bratz dolls feature slender (arguably anorexic) bodies, large heads with big eyes and pouty lips, often wearing makeup and fashionable clothes and almost always including high-heeled shoes. Some Disney dolls are more comparable with Barbie, with thin figures, big eyes and big lips, although less so compared to Monster High and Bratz. American Girls and other types of Disney dolls are more childlike and thus do not feature makeup. American Girl dolls have more realistic body proportions, although both brands continue to have big eyes.

While many of those dolls’ appearances and lifestyles have negative impressionable effects, dolls are not solely responsible for damaging girls’ views of themselves. A somewhat larger issue involves constant marketing to young girls that baking, sewing, and teaching are their only career options in life. Stylist, nurse, veterinarian, an association with candy, and a high-maintenance lifestyle are also often presented as career and life options for girls.

Despite the fact that Lego began as a gender-neutral creative toy for all, over time the blocks began being marketed towards boys, with ’80s commercials featuring “Zack the Lego-maniac,” informing the viewer that Lego was for boys only.

As time went on, Lego “for girls” began being introduced, with the ’70s offering “Homemaker,” a line marketed towards girls that featured domestic and wedding sets. The ’80s featured the “Scala” line of Lego dolls that focussed on jewelry and fashion. “Paradisa” and “Belville” were introduced in the ‘90s, with Belville again offering Lego dolls, Paradisa offering female mini-figs with ponytails, eyelashes, and lipstick, and both promoting lives of leisure. “Clikits” came along in the 2000s, which was a Lego brand where girls could customize fashion items such as purses and jewelry. Currently Lego is running a line called “Friends,” which again promotes a life of leisure with Lego dolls and a world of fashion and pastel colours.

Earlier this year we also saw the release of The Lego Movie which grossed over $460-million during its theatrical run. The film was immediately popular due to its creative tone, hilarious writing, and entertaining story. Unfortunately, the film was also blatantly sexist, with stereotypical female characters, two of whom were emotionally unstable, and the incredible can-do powerhouse female lead Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) presented as insecure and dependent on a bad boyfriend.

Building block alternatives have popped up over time. The early 2000s featured the Ello Creation System with building materials marketed towards girls and featuring pastel colours, experimenting with a wide variety of shapes and sizes, offering a unique alternative albeit with poor marketing.

The recent Lite Brix, Lego-like blocks that light up, markets itself as a toy line for boys and girls. However, the toys are all marketed with stereotypical interests placed on children. Girls get to build party mansions and candy shops, while boys get to build vehicles and fire stations. Lite Brix does offer a doctor’s office set for girls, although the blocks steer towards pastel colours such as pink and purple, while the boys’ blocks are often blue and red.

While young boys are often marketed to with toys that allow them to create virtually anything, girls are often limited to building mansions, salons, bakeries, and other buildings associated with young girls’ supposed interests. The other downside is that just as girls feel excluded from “boy stuff” like police work, construction, and outer space, boys are excluded from “girl stuff” such as teaching, cooking, and medicinal work.

What are the best gift options for girls?

Today, toys are doing better at keeping images of boys and girls off of their boxes so as to avoid targeted labelling, but the constant use of the same career and life options coupled with the use of specific colours maintains the negative stereotype effect.

For dolls, as long as there are other options, the existence of Barbie and dolls like her is not completely detrimental to a young girl’s psyche.

Alternative doll option Lammily was successfully crowd-funded earlier this year on Tilt (formerly Crowdtilt), raising approximately $500,000. The doll was created by Nickolay Lamm as a “realistically proportioned average 19-year-old woman,” who is comparatively shorter, wider, and has flatter feet than Barbie. While it’s important to remember that many types of bodies exist, Lamm’s Lammily could be the start of an entirely new line of dolls, with over 19,000 being shipped out this holiday season.

The Lammily website (lammily.com), which the doll can be purchased through, also features clothes and a unique sticker pack. To create a more realistic doll for young girls, the sticker pack comes with glasses, acne, cellulite, tattoos, and bruises, amongst other options.

Miss Possible (bemisspossible.com) is another line of dolls that was successfully funded as of August this year through IndieGogo, raising over $88,000. The Miss Possibleproject presents dolls meant to inspire young girls, with the first line of three based on chemist Marie Curie, aviator Bessie Coleman, and programmer Ada Lovelace. Co-creators Supriya Hobbs and Janna Eaves are also working on interactive games for kids that include the dolls virtually.

As for building materials, GoldieBlox (goldieblox.com) was successfully funded on Kickstarter with over $285,000 back in 2012. Created by Debbie Sterling, each construction set toy comes with a book starring Goldie, a young girl interested in engineering and inventing. Most sets currently focus on carnival themes, while a Goldie doll is also available with a buildable zip line.

While Miss Possible dolls aren’t available yet, Lammily and GoldieBlox can be purchased now.