A US mum has hit back at damaging gender stereotyping by creating a range of dolls for boys.
Laurel Wilder’s company Wonder Crew makes dolls that aim to empower little boys to play with whatever they want, no matter what ‘society’ has to say about it.
As mums we know that boys and girls love to play with anything. This is innate, instinctive. But when society creates a silly, made-up norm that says boys can’t play with dolls, they won’t.
Why? Because they’ll feel ashamed. Or that there’s something ‘wrong’ with them, or that, God forbid, they’re ‘like a girl’,
So of course we can see the serious damage these norms can create. Not only do they hurt boys who are told to ‘man up’, they hurt girls too, who get the message from society that females are the sole nurturers of babies and children.
And actually, that attitude is damaging and excluding for boys too, who are one day going to become dads.
Laurel’s idea for the company came from a personal place. When she was shocked to hear her own son express the idea that boys shouldn’t cry, she knew she had to do something.
“I soon realised that, of course, these messages and pressures about what it means to be a boy or a man exist everywhere,” she told The Huffington Post. “Of course my son would be affected too.”
And after interviewing a wide cross-section of kids, teachers, psychologists and parents, she learned that playing with dolls had a beneficial impact on kids.
“I learned that doll play teaches a wealth of social and emotional skills,” she said. “Boys are interested in playing with dolls, yet for many parents and some boys there’s a stigma attached to this type of play and the word ‘doll’ itself is a barrier.”
And so her idea for Wonder Crew was born. She set up an account on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and last April raised enough money to make the dolls and accompanying outfits.
The idea for each doll (superhero, builder etc.) came after extensive research on the most popular preschool pretend play scenarios and Laurel combined them with all-important nurturing.
“Why can’t a superhero, builder or dino explorer also be a nurturer?” she says.
And while the dolls are all male, Laurel makes them for boys AND girls, and a range of accompanying female dolls is in the works too.
“Our mission is to empower all kids to see themselves as connected, creative, strong individuals with the ability to go anywhere, be anything,” she told The Huffington Post. “And we are doing just that!”
We have SO much admiration for this mum who went out of her way to do something to fight these gender stereotypes. What a difference she’s making. Inspirational.
