New Dollies!!!! (And a Little about Racism...)

A while back, American Girl sent us their newest Beforever doll, Melody Ellison, which I was sooo happy about! I am always so excited and thankful when they send us a doll, but I had been waiting for Melody to come out especially, because I am obsessed with her!!! I was waiting for the perfect photoshoot to introduce her to you all, but I never really could find anything fabulous enough to showcase her. Oh well. She is my FAVORITE doll that AG ever made, other than Samantha, who will always be my spirit doll. Melody is from the 1960's and loves singing. Her outfits kill me dead. And her flippy little hairdo! ugh! :O)
A couple of weeks ago, they also sent me Gabriela McBride, who is the current Girl of the Year. I love her! She has the most gorgeous glossy curls. Gabriela's story is that she is into dancing, and all the arts, especially poetry/spoken word, despite struggling with a stuttering issue. I haven't read the book, but I'm looking forward to it! I kept seeing people say on instagram that she is the first Girl of the Year who is a "DOC". (Which I had to look up: Doll of Color.) A lot of girls were very excited to see themselves represented by a doll like Gabriela.

Melody has a short film available through Amazon, called: "Love Has to Win" which was pretty cute. And actually, more thought-provoking for me than I expected. Melody grew up in the 60's, when a lot of racism was openly showed, and it sort of told the unfortunate story of a young black girl having her eyes opened to that racism, yet overcoming it with love in her own way. It made me wonder what I would feel, as a young child, when I first found out that some people didn't like me because of my skin color, or anyone else who looked similar to me.
I do remember the first time I was told that racism existed. I legitimately thought my mom was kidding. As a child, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that no one could ever be stupid enough to not like someone because of what shade their skin tone was. It just didn't make sense to me. It still doesn't. But as I grew older, I realized that it can be addicting to dislike people, and you can always find a reason to fuel that addiction. But one thing I will never understand: why skin color? Why is that the divisive factor? Why not hair color? Or eye color? Or height? Can you imagine if a redhead marrying a blonde made them a "mixed family"?? That would be ridiculous. A black person marrying a white person isn't a "mixed family" either. They're just a family. (Not that I'm offended by the term "mixed" necessarily, but you get my point.) How could anyone not think it's so pretty and fascinating that people have different skin colors? I vividly remember when I was about 5 or 6, while at the library with my mom, I saw an albino man for the first time. Full albino, with red eyes, his hair and skin seemed to be glowing white to me. My eyes must have been the size of saucers, and of course I asked my mom why he looked like that. I remember she just casually replied: "Oh, some people just have lighter skin like that. But it's pretty rare." She treated it like it was no big deal, just another beautiful person. I couldn't stop staring at him (kids are rude), but the only thing I was thinking was: "Man, I wish I looked like that..." Kids are smarter than we are about this kind of stuff. They only care what people look like if we train them to.

I'm about the last person on earth qualified to blog about racism. As the majority in my country, I've never had it pointed in my direction in a serious way. I'm not racist. I don't know anybody who is, because I don't hang out with people like that. But as a human, I am qualified to say this: Every ethnicity, every "color", ever type of human is beautiful, because God created them. If you are racist...knock it off. That's just stupid. I love you, so, stop it.

Anyway, so I love our new dolls so much! Thank you, American Girl, for making such an effort to make girls of every skin/hair/eye color feel beautiful and appreciated for their individuality. If you haven't already seen them, they sell "truly me" dolls on their website with a ton of different options for skin/hair/eye color, and I think that's so cool. You can even get a doll without hair, for girls who don't have any. Love it. We kept Melody, because I just couldn't part with her, but Gabriela found a new home with a friend of ours who wanted to get her so badly! Yay!

It feels so good to be able to share these beautiful dolls with girls who love them! That is, when I'm not feeling too greedy to part with them, haha. It's always a struggle!

Love you, beautiful friends!! Whatever shade your skin is, I love it. It looks perfect on you!

-Disney

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