This Black, Kinky-Haired Doll Is Empowering Girls
Go down any toy store aisle and you'll understand exactly why Mushiya Tshikuka felt like something was missing. Tshikuka, a mom of two, Congolese hairstylist, and reality star of WEtv's Cutting It in the ATL, spent years looking for the perfect doll for her little girls, never finding one that looked like them. Her daughters have beautiful brown skin and kinky hair - not light skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair like so many dolls on the market. One day, after getting fed up from one failed search after another, she decided to make a doll that her kids could relate to.
Meet Kéleshe, Tshikuka's first My Natural Doll ($165, RunwayCurls.com). Kéleshe reflects Tshikuka's girls 100 percent: The doll has a gorgeous dark skin tone, big eyes, a rounded nose, full lips, and 100 percent virgin Ethiopian textured hair (it's sourced from Ethiopian women who've donated their never-before-dyed or -chemically altered hair).
Kéleshe's features, which her daughters were heavily involved in choosing, weren't the only details she wanted to get right. She also made sure her doll was clothed in a colorful Kikwembe-printed dress, which is different from other dolls she'd seen on the market, representing #BlackGirlMagic at its best. ?
Tshikuka opened up to Cosmopolitan.com about her experience coming up with her doll, and why she thinks it's so important for little girls to have a doll that looks like them.
What inspired you to create My Natural Doll?
My little girls right now are 5 and 7. You can imagine how many Barbies they've gotten as Christmas gifts. I've actually thrown them away in years past or returned them, which sounds completely harsh, but [the dolls] didn't look like my girls.
When I did see a black doll, she was either light-skinned, dark-skinned, bald, or had yarn, straight plastic curls, or big loop curls for hair. My children don't have that kind of hair on their head - theirs is completely kinky - so I refused to buy the dolls. Especially since there is so much psychology behind looking at a doll as a young girl - it's important they see a reflection of themselves.
If my girls were going to have a toy, it needed to be a mirror image of who they are and build their confidence. Since I've always been an advocate of educational toys, my kids played with those instead. But when my girls became grown enough to talk and ask for dolls, we went and looked for some together. One day, while we were out looking and grew tired [after not finding any], my child said, "Mommy, why don't we just make one?" I agreed! We all sat down in an ice cream shop and planned everything out. I wanted them to be a big part of the process, so they started drawing out how they wanted to dolls to look on a chalkboard. It was incredible for me to witness, because it was just an idea, and then a year later, they held the doll in their hands.
Why do you think there are so few black dolls in the market?
For a long time, the standard of beauty was a white girl with straight hair - an ideology our society has perpetuated and maintained for years. And if people already had it in their minds that black skin and kinky hair weren't beautiful, they weren't going to bother to make a doll to represent that. This is exactly why we're using my doll to redefine the standard of beauty and acknowledge that black is beautiful.
There's a black doll in one of America’s biggest doll stores that used to wear slave clothes, which shocked me beyond belief. Is that what we want little girls to aspire to be? A slave? I refused to buy it.
Some of the other dolls that exist also don't have kinky hair. On My Natural Doll, I used 100 percent virgin, kinky hair because I wanted little girls to understand how beautiful their hair texture is. I have this big problem with a lot of black mothers who normally leave their daughters' hair natural at school, but on special occasions they straighten their hair. Look at what that means: "On normal days, you can wear your kinky hair, but on special days, we can straighten it so you'll look prettier." It's so terrible! I want girls to play with this doll because it has kinky, big, wild hair. Now, on special occasions my daughters say, "I want big, runway hair like my doll's hair."
I love the look of the My Natural Doll: kinky hair, big brown eyes, full lips, and an Afro-centric garment. How did you choose her dress?
Instead of wearing slave clothes, the My Natural Doll wears a Kikwembe-printed dress similar to what African people wore as kings and queens. When a lot of people talk about black history, they only want to date back to the years we were slaves. The truth is, real history began thousands and thousands of years ago; I think of slavery as 2 percent of our history. This is what I want my doll to represent: the greatness of our black history.
You talk a lot about how it's your hope that your doll will encourage a child's self-esteem and self-love. How do you want a girl to feel when she's holding her My Natural Doll?
I want her to see the beauty of the doll in her hands and understand that it's a reflection of her own beauty. I want young girls to develop self-esteem and self-confidence by playing with this doll. If we raise little girls to have a healthy self-esteem, when they get older, they'll be less likely to be in abusive relationships or let corporate America walk all over them because they understand their value. Hopefully [my doll] will change our community full-circle by building confidence in our girls.
What is the response you've received?
It's been amazing! The My Natural Doll is almost sold out and it's not even Christmas yet. When I go out with my little girls, they hold the doll in their hands and can't walk five inches without someone stopping us. People of all races stop us because this is new to everybody. One thing I didn't foresee coming is Caucasians loving it so much and wanting to buy the doll. People from as far as Brazil even want the My Natural Doll because we don't have enough representation.
Do you plan on creating more dolls in the future?
Absolutely. The plan is that Kéleshe is the first one, and then we'll explore all the shades and textures of other minorities.
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