海角大神

There鈥檚 a new doll in town, Lammily, who wants little girls to know 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to get real鈥� by ditching the聽ill-proportioned skinny girl idolatry聽in favor of embracing average proportions, cellulite, and other realistic physical attributes.听

听(), popularly referred to as 鈥渢he average Barbie鈥� when it was聽introduced months ago, went on sale聽Wednesday, just in time for holiday shoppers.听

The doll was made possible via crowdfunding campaign launched by inventor Nickolay Lamm of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

According to the original聽聽where Mr. Lamm raised more than $500,000, the聽Lammily doll bodies are based on measurements listed on the website for the Centers for Disease Control for the average 19-year-old woman.

鈥淧eople think 鈥極h you raised all that money you don鈥檛 need to even sell the doll鈥� but the truth is every penny went into making the very best doll I could possibly make,鈥� Lamm says in a phone interview.听

鈥淏asically, I鈥檓 broke right now, but very happy with the results.鈥�

The doll sells for $25 and has not only a selection of wardrobe pieces, but also stickers sold for an additional $5.99 per pack that allow kids to add scars, stitches, cellulite, and tattoos to their dolls.

Lamm first made headlines in May 2013, by helping Barbie and other dolls take it all off 鈥� their makeup that is 鈥� in a聽series of photoshopped images聽he and a friend generated in order to show that the dolls looked lovely without the war paint.

In a new聽, Lamm聽once again uses his image editing skills only this time on聽a realistically聽proportioned聽Lammily聽doll with minimal makeup聽which he morphs聽into a taller, leaner, better endowed Barbie doll.听He then reverses the process to transform the doll into the more normally proportioned Lammily with the slogan 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to get real鈥� as the kicker.

鈥淯ntil today there was no doll on the market which is affordable and which is made according to realistic body proportions,鈥� Lamm wrote in an email. 鈥淢any people criticize Barbie and there was no alternative. Now, I鈥檝e made one 鈥� Lammily 鈥� and when little girls see her, hold her, they feel like they already know her because she is more like them and the people they know.鈥澛�

Lamm said he has been play-testing the doll with children locally over the past month and brought the finished dolls to St. Edmund's Academy, an independent day school in Pittsburgh for kids in preschool - 8th grade. He visited with second graders to see how they would react to the doll and captured聽.听

I found it hard not to tear-up watching the video of the little girls at St. Edmunds as, one after another, girls of various races took the doll from the box and said lovingly, 鈥淪he looks like my sister.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 unique,鈥� one girl says in a way that tells the viewer she has not been coached or had her words chopped into sound bites. 鈥淏ecause I don鈥檛 have other dolls like this. It looks real.鈥�

The real revelation in the video comes about half way in when the kids are asked what career Lammily (while the doll is dressed in a bikini) might have and the answers include: teacher, swimmer, and computer job.

Then the kids are given a Barbie, also in a bikini and asked what her career options might be and the kids responded: surfer, fashion store, model, and makeup artist. One little girl looks at Barbie appraisingly and concludes, 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 look like she does any job.鈥�

The girls also point out that Lammily looks as if her feet would actually support her body in real life whereas Barbie has 鈥渢ippy toes鈥� that 鈥渓ooks like she has invisible heels on.鈥�

While there appears to have been a fairly balanced number of boys to girls who tested the dolls, only one boy鈥檚 comments were highlighted in the video, which seems to be mainly geared toward a female market. 聽

A boy who has also been assessing the dolls comes to the conclusions that Barbie 鈥渓ooks like more fashiony, like she thinks she鈥檚 better than everybody else.鈥�

In the end, given a choice of which doll they would like as a present, the students all chose Lammily, stating that they already have Barbies and don鈥檛 need more of the same.

Even the boy says that when the boy versions come out (something that has not been discussed by Lamm, but is apparently expected by this child) he would play with his all the time.

One new doll on the market may not create an immediate, sweeping change in the market, or alter the skewed body image perceptions many kids have about themselves and others. But watching the very genuine affection the girls seem to feel toward a doll they have just been handed is a beautiful start to a friendship that may blossom into more of us loving who we are when we look in the mirror.