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Creatable World dolls come with
wigs and clothing that let them
be boys, girls, neither or both
market. So we’re maybe a little behind where kids
are, ahead of where parents are, and that’s exactly
where we need to be.”
anyone Walking into Mattel’s headquarters would
find it difficult to imagine a gender- neutral world of
play. A huge mural depicts some of the company’s
most recognizable toys. A classic bouffanted version
of Barbie in a black-and-white bathing suit and heels
squints down at visitors. In another picture close by,
a little boy puffs out his chest and rips open his shirt,
Superman style, to reveal a red Mattel logo that reads
sTrengTh and excellence. Even a toddler would
be able to discern the messaging on how a woman
and a man are expected to look from these images.
But the evolution within Mattel is obvious once
visitors make their way past the entryway and into
the designers’ cubicles. Inspiration boards are cov-
ered with pictures of boys in skirts and girls in ath-
letic gear. The most striking images are mashups of
popular teen stars: the features of Camila Mendes
and Cole Sprouse, who play Veronica and Jughead on
Riverdale, combine to create one androgynous face,
and Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard, who
play the main characters on Stranger Things, blend
into a single floppy-haired, genderless person with
sharp cheekbones.
In the past decade, toy companies have begun
to tear down gender barriers. Smaller businesses
like GoldieBlox, which launched in 2012 and builds
engineering toys targeting girls, and large companies
like Lego, which created the female-focused Lego
Friends line the same year, have made STEM toys
for girls more mainstream. Small independent toy-
makers have pushed things further with dollhouses
painted green and yellow instead of purple and pink,
or cooking kits that are entirely white instead of dec-
orated with flowers or butterflies.
Perhaps it’s surprising, then, that nobody has
beaten Mattel to creating a gender- neutral doll. A
deep Google search for such a toy turns up baby dolls
or strange- looking plush creatures that don’t resem-
ble any human who ever walked this earth. Nothing
comes close to the Creatable World doll that Mattel
has conjured up over the past two years.
Scientists have debunked the idea that boys are
simply born wanting to play with trucks and girls
wanting to nurture dolls. A study by psycholo-
gists Lisa Dinella and Erica Weisgram, co-editors
of Gender Typing of Children’s Toys: How Early
Play Experiences Impact Development, found that