American Girl, American Dream
American Girl, American Dream
For my daughter’s 9th birthday we went to the American Girl Doll store in NYC. She was excited she was going to finally get an American Girl doll. And after years of seeing magazine pictures of little girls with dolls that looked and dressed exactly like them, she couldn’t wait to have a doll that looked exactly like her. The store was mayhem. There were thousands of dolls and hundreds of people. We looked through every display case for hours and couldn’t find a doll that looked like her. With her pale mom born in Greece and her slightly darker dad born in India, perhaps her caramel complexion was unique. But, I was thinking, certainly there is a doll out there for her. There is a doll out there for everyone. I had seen the magazines and so many dolls in the store. But on that day, we could not find one. We ended up buying a beautiful dark-skinned doll which she loved and months later also a Native-American one which looked a bit more like her. But the promise of the catalogs—“we have dolls that look just like you”—was not delivered, and she was disappointed. If you are selling diversity and inclusion, and don’t deliver, be prepared to disappoint those lured by the promise, who do not find others who look like themselves.