We Are The World

When Mia Galison was 10 years old, she always played with a collection of small, plastic dolls that represented a range of people: Native Americans, African-Americans and Caucasians. It was part of her childhood—and then, out of nowhere, those types of toys just seemed to disappear from stores. Surprisingly, some 30-plus years later, as Galison's New York-based company Eeboo got its start, multicultural product was still pretty scarce, with retailers apparently seeing the category as too big a risk. In fact, the introduction of one of Eeboo's first products, a stationery set featuring four girls of different nationalities, was met with considerable hesitation on the part of retailers. “I cannot sell this in my store,” they told Galison. Apparently, if it doesn't have a white character, it won't sell.

Thankfully, times have changed since Eeboo launched nearly 10 years ago. Today, Hispanic and Asian populations are the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As a result, more kids' product manufacturers and publishers, as well as music and television production companies, recognize that it's a diverse world we all live in. Whether it's books, bilingual CDs and DVDs, dolls of different cultures, educational games, or even small, plastic action figures and playsets, the time is now for more multicultural toys.

Sure, selling multicultural toys can be a change from the norm for those retailers who have never ventured into that area. It's something new, and in some cases can feel risky. As Eeboo's creative director of product development, Galison knows it's a challenge to introduce these products, but is determined to do it anyway. Eeboo was born out of a desire to develop toys and products of diversity for her own children, Galison tells Playthings, particularly because they are growing up in New York, a very multicultural city. “As a mother, I value above almost everything living in a multicultural place,” she says. “I wish there was more stuff available that's attractive and multicultural. Our product is inspired by stuff I want but can't find.”

The company's wide selection of games, puzzles, building blocks, journals and other items—sold through more than 3,300 retailers, 15 to 20 percent of which are toy stores—represent many cultures, including characters of African, Caribbean, Indian, Hispanic, Asian, Indian-American, Hebrew or Russian descent. Eeboo's current items for 2007 include the Paper Doll Game, which lets girl pick clothes inspired by different careers; The Picnic Game, where players spin together the parts to their picnic meal; I Never Forget a Face, a matching game of different faces of color; and Friends Say Hello, a learning puzzle that teaches kids ages 2 and up how to say hello in Russian, Mandarin, Italian, Swahili, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Hindi and other tongues. And this fall, Eeboo will launch new items featuring diverse characters, including birthday books, advent calendars, cards and spinner games.

One new Eeboo offering getting optimistic feedback from retailers is the Thoughtful Girl line of journals. Each book features one of five girls of a different ethnicity who has an interest in astronomy, nature, poetry, music or art. Galison's daughter recently took some of the books to school, and classmates picked ones based on what they were interested in, not necessarily the character that represented them most by race or culture, which Galison finds interesting.

“It's not just about the girls and their ethnicities but what they are interested in,” she says. “If there's an Asian girl who likes science, she'll pick one dealing with science but that has an Indian character on the cover.”

Hopefully, with manufacturers' help, one day children will be used to seeing Indian, Black, Hispanic, Southeast Asian and other diverse faces in their dolls, toys and other kids' products as much as they are used to seeing white faces, Galison says.

“There are all these beautiful, delightful children that go to the store and don't find anything that looks like them. [Multicultural product] changes the standard of what children expect to see,” she says. “After a while, it becomes a normal thing. It's not an anomaly.”

For one cultural group, Hispanics, the popularity of Nickelodeon's TV series Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! has helped to continually expand the number of bilingual and cultural products targeted to these buyers since 2002, when Fisher-Price launched its initial Dora product line—a huge improvement from the status of the toy industry in 2001, when there was very little product available for kids that featured a popular young character of color.

Nowadays, if any ethnic group is represented significantly in toys, it's the Hispanic market, which offers children's music CDs, Latin instruments like maracas, dolls, bilingual games and puzzles, videos and more. Hispanics currently represent 43 million, or 15 percent, of the population in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A third of that population is under the age of 18, and one fifth of all children younger than the age of 5 in the U.S. are Hispanic. Hispanics are also the nation's biggest shoppers, spending just under $800 billion a year at retail last year, according to a recent study by the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth in Athens, Ga. Another report by the Selig Center predicts the spending power of Hispanics within the next five years to top $1.2 trillion.

Dora has had tremendous success in the U.S. and internationally because the character clicks with children of many different ethnicities, according to Joan Grasso, senior director of core toys and activities, hard goods for Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products. The series isn't about being Hispanic, but exploring different countries and different interests, she notes. Dora is currently broadcast in more than 125 markets, including Australia, Latin America, New Zealand, the U.K., Spain, Italy and India. “When Nickelodeon launched Dora the Explorer, there were few, if any, products at retail that were truly multicultural,” Grasso tells Playthings. “Dora changed all that. Today's toy aisle is more diverse, but there is still progress that can be made.”

The toy industry is just waking up to multicultural toys, agrees MaryBeth Sigler-Garcia, CEO and founder of Tenafly, N.J.-based Cantarima, a multimedia company that produces bilingual Spanish/English DVDs and CDs. The company's popular products include Canciones Tradiciones, a CD of traditional children's songs in Spanish, and Spanish and English videos—such as N ú meros y Figuras (Numbers & Letters), Cantos y Rimas (Nursery Songs and Rhymes) and Canciones de Cuna (Songs for Bedtime)—that help introduce children to the Spanish language through everyday things like numbers, letters, music.

But once you represent one culture, shouldn't you represent all? In an ideal world, yes—all toy manufacturers would offer product tailored to children of many different ethnicities. Unfortunately, manufacturers who want to produce these toys are facing difficulties, since representing many cultures in toys can be difficult without significant retailer support.

With the exception of Dora product, there is still reluctance from manufacturers to develop even Spanish-focused products across a wider audience, Sigler-Garcia says. At the same time, there are still retailers who are averse to selling multicultural items. “As the demographic of the U.S. develops, it will be interesting to see if the continued growth and purchasing power of the Hispanic population will push retailers into offering more multicultural products,” Sigler-Garcia says.

Current U.S. immigration debates might be one possible impediment to convincing retailers, Grasso suggests, as approximately one migrant worker enters the U.S. every 31 seconds, and most remain here to raise families, according to the U.S. Census. However, if retailers provide items that connect to children via any cultural marker—be it semblance, language, food, dress or anything of cultural significance—it can, and most likely will, be successful. “It's not a risk if the product is right,” Grasso says. “Both Dora and Diego are based on characters kids love, and we built product that was a natural fit for each. When the product is forced, it's a risk. It's not enough just to put multicultural product out there. There needs to be a deeper connection—that's why both Dora and Diego have enjoyed such great success.”

Some retailers are facing the multicultural category head-on. Dolls and other toys that represent children of color are the only kind that Denise Gary-Robinson will sell at her online store, Dolls Like Me, based in Summit, N.J.; her objective since she started the site in 2005 has been to help kids connect with these kinds of dolls and toys. Latino and African-American puppets from Sunny & Company, dolls from Lee Middleton and Language Littles, dolls and fashion kits from Fashion Angels, and puzzles and matching games from Eeboo are just a handful of the more than 800 items that Gary-Robinson offers to her customers online.

“An interesting thing is happening,” she tells Playthings. “Some manufacturers seem to be pulling away while others seem to be developing more. Large manufacturers have quit making multicultural toys, while others who are smaller are making entire lines.” She has also noticed increased product for the Latino market, but says the toy industry seems like it's still choosing among extremes when it comes to multicultural toys—they either make them or they don't. She adds that one industry insider even told her that black parents buy white dolls, so there's no reason to bother making dolls of color.

But this is not always the case, Gary-Robinson says, since her consumer base for dolls of color stands at 4,000. She recently surveyed a group of her customers on having dolls of color or the same ethnicity as their children, and 82 percent of black parents, 50 percent of Asian parents, 74 percent of Hispanic parents and 70 percent of biracial parents found it important.

Parents do want toys that represent their child and are no longer satisfied with their kids being invisible, Gary-Robinson says. “It's a whole new generation.” In the dolls category, she thinks upcoming lines like the Karito Kids, from Laura Rangel's Los Angeles-based Kids Give, will be successful, and she plans on carrying the white version of the doll on her site as well.

In the very multicultural city of Los Angeles, Rangel will be introducing young girls to different cultures this July via her Karito Kids, 21-inch dolls that represent different girls from specific places around the world: Pita from Mexico City, Mexico; Wan Ling from Shanghai, China; Lulu from Nairobi, Kenya; Gia from Florence, Italy; and Zoe from New York. Each doll comes with a book that uses a mix of fiction and non-fiction to tell a story about the girl's home country, including its cultural celebrations and various belief systems. In addition to the educational features of the dolls, girls can also choose to donate a portion of the sales proceeds to a specific charitable cause (such as water irrigation in a developing town or educational programs) under Plan USA, an international children's charity.

An outsider to the toy industry, Rangel entered the business with a marketing background. As she studied toys on the market that were trying to be more “diverse,” she recognized that there were few that truly represented different cultures, and even fewer that did it in a fun way, with the exception of the Language Littles dolls, Educa's puzzles and Rumba's games.

“Other than Dora and Diego, there's really not much in terms of product out there,” Rangel tells Playthings. “There are toys, dolls like Groovy Girls that represent different colors, and that's one pattern, the representation of race. But dolls that represent race don't necessarily represent culture.” Over time, Rangel's goal for her company is to expand the multicultural category entirely, so that American dolls, for example, won't necessarily be white or black dolls but a mix of all cultures that represent the makeup of the country. Kids are more aware of their cultural surroundings, she says, and it's important for younger generations to recognize one another, especially while they are still young. The company will also launch a corresponding Web site where, Rangel hopes, girls can register and virtually visit, for example, a shop in France or similar places of interest in other cities of the Karito Kids characters, giving them a head start in learning about the world and the people in it.

“There's a changing face of America, and it's important to have multiple cultures in play,” Rangel says. “A lot of what it is, is timing,” she explains. “As America continues to morph, it will…ultimately have long-lasting impact on the toy industry. Right now, [it] is very limited, because most manufacturers want to reach a large segment at mass, but according to our census, minorities grew 43 percent, fertility rates for blacks and Asians alone are now four times higher than whites. And talking about the trends over time, although it may be in specialty today, it continues to change the face of the toy industry over time.”

Fanny Wong also sees the importance of educating children about the cultures around them, and says there's no better place to start than locally. The founder and president of Plainview, N.Y.-based Fanny's Playhouse says she could never find Asian versions of dolls for her sons, even though they live in a very diverse neighborhood in Queens, N.Y. Wong also notes that her friend's children, meanwhile, even though they live not too far from Queens in a nearby suburb, are the only Asian kids in their classes. “I see a need for multicultural products in such areas precisely for education purposes. There is such a diverse world out there,” Wong tells Playthings. “The more familiar children are with a culture, the less fearful they are of it, and the less likely they are to form a stereotype in their heads.”

Wong offers soft dolls and puppets—popular lines include the Nighty Night Dolls, the Japanese Pose and Play dolls and the Color and Wash puppets—that have been selling well in toy stores plus other specialty retail outlets, such as the New York Botanical Gardens in Bronx, N.Y., especially during spring when Japanese cherry blossoms are in bloom or during Chinese New Year celebrations, she says. More than 100 retailers around the country currently carry her products and often display them with books. She also distributes items to schools for educational programs—one example of how multicultural toys can be educational, she says.

Grantsville, Md.-based Corolle also makes a point of offering dolls of color and different cultures and will be launching a 12-inch Poupette Collection of dolls for specialty. Characters Lili, Lulu, Fifi and Loli are designed for preschoolers and feature varying shades of skin colors. The company is also adding more diverse dolls to its Mon Premier, Les Classiques, Miss Corolle and Les Cheries Collections lines of dolls.

“Corolle believes that it is important to offer quality playthings that reflect the diversity of America's young population,” company spokesperson Maggie Moss-Ticker tells Playthings.

Fashion dolls are another area for growth in diversity products, according to Len Simonian, president of the Camarillo, Calif.-based Only Hearts Club, founded in 2004. The company's signature doll collection features 9-inch, fully poseable fashion dolls with different background stories coupled with books designed to teach girls important life lessons. The dolls have different interests, from cooking to soccer to guitar to the outdoors and more. One current doll in the line, Briana Joy, represents a young girl of color, with two additional characters about to be introduced: Hannah Faith, an Asian-American girl, and Kayla Ray, a darker-skinned African-American girl.

Simonian says the company's decision to add these additional dolls to the Only Hearts Club line came directly from customer interest. “We want to make sure that we represent as many backgrounds as we can,” he says. “A lot of people say they are diverse, but we really want to make sure that we are doing that. It's something we got a lot of consumer response to. They like that fact that [each doll] looks real. They can associate [it] with themselves, because the doll looks like them and dresses the same way they do.”

Only Hearts Club works with store owners on the technical side of things to develop floor displays for the collection, and continues to offer sample books and dolls for in-store readings and displays. The company has even entered into a deal with Scholastic to have new books produced in 2008 specifically for the publisher's Scholastic Book Fairs division.

Multicultural toys play a key role in helping children of foreign-born parents who speak a native language at home, as well as American families looking to teach children a new language or reflect what they may be exposed to in school, Ann Kearns, director of licensing for New York-based Sesame Street Workshop, tells Playthings. The Sesame Street TV series has always shown live actors of different ethnicities and backgrounds and taught children about different cultural places, people, events and celebrations, a mission that spills over into its branded toys and books, Kearns says. A new character, Abby Cadaby, will continue this tradition on the show and with products, including a talking Abby doll from Fisher-Price as well as Abby DVDs.

“Multicultural products like our bilingual Elmo are multifaceted,” adds Kearns. “It can work for an English-speaking family that wants to reinforce what their child is learning in school or for a Spanish-speaking family that wants to reinforce what their child is learning at home and so on.”

Currently, the series is broadcast in more than 120 countries, and the company tailors toys specific to each region. For example, in India, the Elmo doll speaks Hindi. Kearns says she would love for this product to be available in the U.S. as well, but for now, Sesame Street at least offers the bilingual Spanish/English Elmo. The company has also developed bilingual dolls for Germany and for the Canadian market. Barcelona-based Educa, which is distributed in the U.S. out of Millbrae, Calif., also offers bilingual educational products, including French/English and Spanish/English games and puzzles for children. Dick St. Jean, brand manager for the company, says there are still not nearly enough multicultural toys on the market because manufacturers continue to find it a risky business. “The U.S. is multicultural,” he says. “If the toy industry does not do it, who will?”

In the multicultural arena, “There's still work to be done,” Eeboo's Galison says. For some under-the-radar populations that are continuing to grow in the United States, there are still not many diverse product choices for kids, she says, noting that, for example, Indian children sometimes end up with Hispanic dolls because they have a similar skin tone and no Indian dolls exist for them to buy. And some of Eeboo's retailers, even now, still do not want to carry the company's journals that feature an Indian girl pictured on the cover, she says.

Southeast Asian, Indian and Pakistani people are rarely represented in dolls and toys, says Dolls Like Me's Gary-Robinson. To raise awareness, the retailer is currently planning a multicultural family cruise that will begin next summer and feature workshops for parents, such as connecting to an adopted child of a different culture and promoting self-esteem in children of color. She is also planning similar educational events throughout New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Houston and Chicago in restaurants, hotels and other venues.

Kids Give's Rangel has a big event up her sleeve as well. She recently met with actress Brooke Shields, who loved Rangel's dolls so much that she agreed to host a celebrity tea party with moms and their daughters. Madonna, Katie Cruise and Reese Witherspoon (and their children) have already RSVP'd to attend the event. In addition to showcasing Rangel's dolls to attendees, the tea party will also be featured in an upcoming issue of In Style magazine.

“Children are inquisitive and compassionate by nature, and by giving children toys that are multicultural, you can only hope that they will help foster in them a life-long compassion and inquisitiveness about different cultures,” Cantarima's Sigler-Garcia says. Children are getting smarter and savvier about the vastness of the world around them, but they need to be given toys that teach and that reinforce this diversity, she says.

Nickelodeon's Grasso agrees. “We already live in a multicultural world. Kids are exposed to so much more then their older siblings and parents and have a better understanding that the world extends way beyond their neighborhood,” she says, noting, “The industry needs to move in this direction to grow—and meet the expectations of kids and parents.”