Multicultural Rag Dolls

What is it

Introduce your child to multicultural dolls and their stories, so that they can appreciate themselves as they are, respect others and experience the world of diversity.

Meet the four little friends who live in and explore the magic and multicultural city of London:

• Hope (Ghana) – Hope has natural, dark curly hair and likes to decorate it with her favourite red poppy. She also likes animals and loves to visit the city farm in the capital.
• Jun (Hong Kong) – His Chinese parents named him Jun (“俊”) wishing him to be a talented and handsome boy. Jun likes to play ball and aims at wall. His favourite cartoon is Doremon and he always imagines he’ll find some magical tools from the front pocket of his jumpsuit one day.
• Lea (Oslo) – Lea has long, blonde hair and braids on both side. She likes a lot the light blue ribbons matching her dark blue dress. She also likes to ask why and dreams of flying high.
• Parth (Mumbai) – He likes to travel on the bus and sitting on top deck is a must.

The soft rag dolls are made from Cotton Shell, and are just the right size for young children at 35cm tall. They conform to both the European Toy Safety Standard EN71 and the US Toy Safety Standard ASTM F963.

What our experts think

The multicultural rag dolls were very popular – our testers took them everywhere and they were treated to lots of cuddles. There was lots of scope for discussion around different cultures, making these dolls an excellent learning opportunity – some of our children enjoyed telling people where their doll was from. The doll could also be used to foster a sense of belonging; it can be difficult to find dolls that represent different races and children may find that, regardless of their own cultural background, they find themselves only playing with white dolls.

Our testers particularly liked the dolls hair and the way in which they could dress/undress them, although some of the children found the clothes a little tight. We liked that the dolls came with little passports but it would have been good if these were more hard-wearing, because they quickly got lost or damaged, but would be great for encouraging further discussion or for imaginative play.