With Christmas right around the corner, I've been on the fence about what to get my soon-to-be 7-year-old niece. The kid really loves Barbie dolls, but do I really want her playing with something that's going to give her a warped idea of what beauty is? Think what you want, but there's no arguing Barbie's controversial body proportions and their effects on young girls. If this play thing were actually human she'd have to walk on all fours in order to balance her top-heavy weight distribution and her impossibly tiny midsection that's not even large enough to fit a full liver. Luckily, there's a new doll out in the market designed with proportions of an average 19-year-old girl and she comes complete with curves. She's the Lammily doll and once you see her you're going to fall in love with her!
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It's about time someone came out with a doll that young girls could actually relate to. At least that's what graphic designer turned toymaker Nickolay Lamm had in mind when he created the Lammily doll using the measurements of an average 19-year-old girl's body (based on CDC). Not only does Lammily look healthy and more realistic but you can also adorn her with vinyl stickers that represent freckles, acne, scars, stretch marks and even cellulite. You know, those things that like 90 percent of REAL women have!
Lammily actually started off as an art project back in July of 2013. She was supposed to depict what Barbie would look like if had realistic body measurements. "Parents and their kids were emailing and asking where they could buy the 'normal Barbie'–but they didn't exist," Lamm told TIME magazine. So he raised $501,000 and got to it.
The adorable doll became available for purchase and delivery on Wednesday and she's as cute as a button (or a real 19-year-old girl). I love that she has a booty, hips and thighs. But my favorite part is probably the $6 sticker-extension pack. It's definitely important for young girls to understand that we all have imperfections. All women get acne, scars, stretch marks and cellulite at some point in their lives and that doesn't make them any less beautiful. I wish there would have been dolls like this when I was growing up. It would have saved me years of low self-esteem!
Check out the video of Lammily transforming into Barbie below!
Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2W_jGnw0JY
Images via Lammily.com
