Designer Nickolay Lamm has fashioned the anti-Barbie – an 11-inch doll featuring generous proportions, flat feet, minimal makeup, without giant perky breasts. While that toy concept might sound super refreshing for an extra six bucks you can purchase a page of 38 reusable stickers, made of clear vinyl, which will allow you to decorate your realistic doll with stretch marks, pimples, cellulite, freckles, tattoos, moles, stitches, scrapes, scars, and mozzie bites.
“I wanted to show that reality is cool,” Lamm told TIME. “And a lot of toys make kids go into fantasy, but why don’t they show real life is cool? It’s not perfect, but it’s really all we have. And that’s awesome.”
Lammily proudly bears her stretch marks. PHOTO: Lammily
The graphic designer-turned-toy-maker dreamt up the first ‘Lammily doll’ after rendering a realistic 3D Barbie-like doll figure based on the measurements deemed “average” for a 19-year-old woman by the Centers for Disease Control.
When the 26-year-old’s so-called “Normal Barbie” creation went viral last year he decided to crowdfund his creation raising a $501,000 for his $95,000 target – he took this very generous public outpouring of support to mean that people believed there was a gap in the market and he was onto something.
“To be honest, I knew it was either going to bomb or blow up, there was no in between,” Lamm said.
Lammily sports a Cindy Crawford style beauty mark. PHOTO: Lammily
But once Lamm he had his prototype, whose replications now retail for about $25, built he felt like there was still something missing – enter the $5.99 sticker pack.
“Some people were like ‘Oh my God,’ as if I’m promoting domestic violence or something,” Lamm said of the vinyl trimmings which include bruises and scars, but he told TIME that this is definitely not the intent.
“Look, we all get boo boos and scratches. Life isn’t perfect, we all sometimes fall down but we get back up.”
Little boys and girls may be inspired to not be shy of their imperfections. PHOTO: Lammily
Lamm says the idea of including scars came from his aunt who said, “You know, some kids have scars and are really shy about them”.
Lammily sporting a cellulite sticker. PHOTO: Lammily
And the cellulite stickers?
Also, Barbie should make dolls with cellulite!!! Hahaha!!! After all, around 95% of ALL women have it!!! 😝😊
“I wanted to show that reality is cool,” says the creator of the doll and he already has a fan in body warrior like Demi Lavato who called for realism a long time ago.
The creation of the Lammily doll – whose motto is “Average is beautiful” – has once again sparked the debate about Barbie and her enduring unrealistic body shape.
But Mattel’s vice president of Barbie design, Kim Culmone, recently defended Barbie, insisting her figure was not designed to make a statement about body image, but was fashioned for functional play.
“Barbie’s body was never designed to be realistic … She was designed for girls to easily dress and undress.”
But critics of the legendary toy say that its unattainable silhouette does affect the way the young girls identify with health and beauty.
In a psychological study, girls from age five to eight were shown images of either a Barbie doll, or a more realistic “size 16” doll. Those who saw the Barbie dolls had less self-esteem and worse body image, and had a stronger desire to be thin.
Nickolay told E! he wants to go even further in his quest to push realistic standards of beauty.
“I want to create other dolls. I can’t diversify my resources right now, maybe in 2015,” Lamm said.
“I’m thinking an African American one, or a male doll. I don’t know, to be honest. I have to think about it some more. But maybe a boy doll, I think that would be a good one.”
Nickolay say the Lammily doll is about “appreciating life, even though it’s not perfect often times.”
