Adding to Diversity: Dancer Dolls 22-36

Wow. I was not expecting such a big response to my first round of dolls. My Etsy shop actually crashed when I launched my first twenty-one dolls because so many people tried to get dolls when they went live!

Thank you for your encouragement with this project, to the many people that messaged after looking for additional dolls, and for sooooo many comments I got that basically said, “WOW WE NEED MORE DIVERSITY LIKE THIS”.

So I’m adding to the diversity. I had already planned on making “boy” dolls, and many commented wanting to see that. It got me thinking about gender, and identity, and what actually makes a doll a boy or a girl. Does a tutu guarantee someone is a girl? Does short hair guarantee someone is a boy? No way. Part of it is how we identify ourselves, what society says is masculine or feminine, but really how you identify is up to you. So for these dolls, I guess it’s up to their internal stuffing and how they identify, and how whomever plays with these dolls sees them as boy, girl, non-binary, what have you.

You’ll notice with the above four dancers that I chose to have their outfits present as a masculine dancer without laces for the slippers, and capri type leggings instead of shorts and a tutu. I also gave them a short-sleeved top instead of a thin-strapped leotard. Again, they could be boys, girls, or non-binary; it really opens up the discussion to the child or person who plays with the dolls. Kinda cool, huh?

Inspired by The Lucky Fin Project, I wanted to make additional dolls with unique limbs. I began first with these two dancers with unique arms, and it again can open up the discussion for kids (and adults!) about beautiful bodies, confidence in dance and movement, and seeing uniqueness in others as strength and grace. My next doll batches I hope to expand on these ideas, so more to come!

I played a lot with color for this batch of dolls, and had so much fun making additional Hijabi Ballerinas. After discussing with a friend, I made sure that the yarns for the legs were more bold colors so they looked like opaque leggings and wouldn’t be confused with translucent tights. Aren’t the color combinations dreamy?

One last feature I am continuing to work on are EYES. When trying to create different hairstyles to represent so many different ethnicities, eyes were a bit tricky. I love with the design of this pattern (shout out to Bunnies & Yarn for your fabulous pattern I continue to use!), I love that I could use simple black safety eyes. But I found that I couldn’t represent as many ethnicities with a simple rounded shape.

So my first experiment to create a more Asian, almond-shaped eye went well. Using a smaller diameter eye, I could embroider around the eye to add to the shape. Plan on seeing more variety of eye shape!

This batch of dolls went live this evening. You can click on the image above to see if any remain in my shop! But I’ll continue making these little dancers, and I have plenty more ideas coming to broaden the diversity.

Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive. Our world is filled with so much beauty; I love trying to capture it. Feel free to comment below if there are unique ideas you have for me to consider!

~Maggie