It’s a widely-debated question as to whether Barbie – the immensely popular, blonde, blue-eyed doll found in nearly every toy store across the country – is a good role model to the young children who own and play with her. While her career aspirations are ambitious and her message that one can grow up to be whomever they want is inspiring, her unrealistic body proportions are far from ideal. In fact, should Barbie’s proportions be scaled up to the size of a human being, she’d be terribly deformed with a giraffe-like neck, little room for internal organs, and a head and chest so heavy that she would have to crawl to move.

Like many, Nickolay Lamm was dissatisfied with this physical image presented to children, particularly to girls who might aspire to achieve Barbie’s glamorous look. However, unlike others, Lamm actually did something about it by creating Lammily – a toy doll based on the actual proportions of a healthy 19-year-old woman:

What if Fashion Dolls Were Made Using Standard Human Body Proportions?

This is the question I asked myself after comparing fashion dolls to typical body proportions. HuffingtonPost, Yahoo! Shine, Today, Time, LA Times, Good Morning America, CNN, CBS, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, BBC Radio and other news outlets featured my project.

Thankfully, the project has been funded successfully, and we may soon see Lammily on the shelves aside Barbie!