Lammily vs. Barbie

Christmas is about a month away and Black Friday is officially over. Parents are now starting to look for what gifts to buy for their children. Launched in 1959, Barbie was a hit toy that all kids wanted to own. What’s not to want? She looks “perfect” and has the life young kids dream of having when they reach adulthood. July 2013, Nickolay Lamm, 26, created a doll for an art project. Little did he know, parents would be asking to buy it for their children this year.

For the creation of his doll, Lamm took measurements of an average 19-year-old woman from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and molded the measurements to a 3D model of the Barbie Doll. He hoped by making a doll with more realistic proportions, children would grow up feeling better about their self-image. He named the doll Lammily.

As you can see in the photo, Lamm’s doll in comparison to Barbie, is shorter in height and has more realistic proportions from head to toe. Lammily also has flat feet rather than a foot made for wearing heels.

To fund his project, he hoped to raise at least $95 thousand to produce the dolls. To his surprise, he raised $105 thousand dollars. Lamm said, “To be honest, I knew it was either going to bomb or blow up, there was no in between.”

With the rise of his new doll, he decided to take Lammily over to a local elementary school to see what the target consumer, the kids, thought in comparison to Barbie.

A series of questions were asked in a video:

“What would you say the career would be of the Lammily doll?”

“What do you think the other doll [Barbie] would be?”

“Which one do you think most seems like you?”

It wasn’t too much of a surprise when the children thought that Barbie was more of a fantasy doll. And surprisingly enough, most of the children liked Lammily better than Barbie.

Taking it a step further, Lamm continues to add more realistic features to Lammily using stickers called “Lammily Marks” including:

Acne
Stretch marks
Cellulite
Freckles
Scars

…and many more. In 2015, from race to body type, Lamm hopes to add diversity to his dolls.

Even Demi Lovato tweets about the stickers:

With 19,000 dolls going to backers and 25,000 more being ready to be shipped before the holidays, you can say Lammily is on the road to success.

Although there may be a few critics of the Lammily doll, I believe that Lamm’s invention of this new more realistically proportioned doll is one step closer for a better view of body image. With most teenagers and adults having problems with their body image, it is nice to know that there is now a children’s toy that fits the image of a more realistically attainable body type. If I had a child, I would definitely invest in Lammily!