Look-A-Like Doll
There’s the bedtime bouncy baby doll, the Betty Boop doll, the Barbie doll and even the Doug doll, but this Christmas, don’t be surprised if your child asks for a look-a-like doll.
“It looks like me,” said seven-year-old Molly, a proud owner of a look-a-like doll.
Look-a-like dolls are custom designed to resemble a child. The manufactures of these dolls use a picture of the child to create a “one-of-a-kind doll, personalized to look like your child,” as one company claimed.
Six-year-old Rachael claims that her synthetic self is “the best.”
Some experts are concerned about that the lessons kids are learning through look-a-like dolls are less than ideal.
“The whole point of loving and caring for a baby doll is to imitate mommy and daddy giving love and taking care of another human being, and if you’re doing that to yourself, you’re not taking care of another human being,” said Susan Rabin, LCSW.
Traditionally, dolls were used as means to teach empathy. Through role play, a child could learn to nurture another person.
What Parents Should Know
Before the age of seven, kids are naturally self-centered. They have not yet developed the cognitive skills to understand others’ perspectives and points of view. Playing with dolls deters this self-centeredness by teaching compassion for others. The child learns to take care of someone else and their needs.
The look-a-like doll, on the other hand, could reinforce the self-centeredness. If the child is consistently focusing on herself, or her “mini me”, she could be less apt to become empathetic towards others.
Susan Rabin thinks that these dolls are promote too much self-love. I think it’s kind of a reflection of our society of how vain and narcissistic. we’re getting,” she said.
For that reason, some experts said look-a-like dolls may actually slow a child development of empathy.
Buying the doll as a memoir of how your child looked at a certain age was one thing, but Rabin said that buying it to replace the traditional role of dolls was not advised.
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“The whole point of loving and caring for a baby doll is to imitate mommy and daddy giving love and taking care of another human being. " -- Susan Rabin, LCSW
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Parental Concerns Many parents are concerned that a child would look at a “clone doll”, as they termed it, as an opportunity for a child to reinvent herself. The child could see it as an opportunity to erase all of the imperfections. In a society that already puts a great deal of emphasis on physical attractiveness and aesthetics, many parents feel that this look-a-like doll trend only amplifies to the problem.
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The
Evolution of the Modern Doll As early as the 1600’s, paper dolls hit the European market with great success and remained popular until the 1800’s. Porcelain dolls, because they more closely resembled human skin, overshadowed paper dolls. The “Kewpie Doll” rolled around, followed by the “Bye-lo Baby” in the 1920’s, which became so popular that it later became the “Million Dollar Baby”. In 1959 “Barbie” hit toy store shelves and has remained popular ever since. Her boyfriend, Ken, came along in 1961. During the latter half of the 1900’s, dolls of all types and colors fell in the arms of many girls, and even boys. G.I. Joe, the first action figure, came along in 1964. |
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