"Normal Barbie has proportions of Average American 19 year old"

“Average is beautiful,” says designer Nickolay Lamm, who created a “Normal Barbie” using the average proportions of a 19-year-old woman. 

 

If Barbie were an average young woman, she’d look very different from the toy so many girls grew up with.

Mattel

Barbie would look more like this: a doll artist Nickolay Lamm designed and built to show that “average” is beautiful.

Via lammily.com

The project started last year, when Lamm, a Pittsburgh-based artist, designed images of what he called “Normal Barbie” in an attempt to make the doll reflective of real bodies.

Nicoklay Lamm / Via lammily.com

After Lamm’s original designs went viral, he worked on building other dolls with average proportions.

He used the measurements of an average 19-year-old woman from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then molded them to a 3D model of Barbie.

Compared with the original Barbie doll, the changes are drastic: Lamm’s doll is shorter and has more realistic proportions. Her feet are flat, not permanently built to fit into high heels.

Via nickolaylamm.com

Lamm has now launched a crowdfunding site to produce 5,000 “Lammily” dolls, which will feature average proportions, a light amount of makeup, and joints that bend.

Via lammily.com

You can buy the doll with a $20 donation.

He’s attempting to raise $95,000 to produce the dolls, but says it’s worth it. “If there’s even a 10% chance that those dolls affect [body image], let’s make it.”

Via lammily.com

“I’ll build new clothes and accessories after this crowdfunding,” Lamm told BuzzFeed. “My plan is for Lammily to come in different ethnicities and body shapes. But all future body shapes will be of healthy typical women.”

Via Nickolay Lamm

“I want to show that average is beautiful,” says Lamm.

“I’ve been working really hard to make the doll a reality,” Lamm says in his fundraising video. “‘Lammily’ promotes a healthy lifestyle.”

He says “Lammily” is an alternative to dolls with unrealistic beauty standards that dominate the market, like Barbie, or the hypersexualized Bratz Dolls.

Via lammily.com

The big questions is: Will kids want to play with “average”-looking dolls?

Via lammily.com

“My doll is a cool-looking doll that just happens to be average,” he says.

Via lammily.com

He plans to market the doll to kids without mentioning its body type. “Very few kids are concerned about body image like parents are. It would be like me trying to feed them broccoli.”

Via Nickolay Lamm

We’re yet to see the success of his fundraising campaign, but these are pretty awesome…and actually look like real women.

Via lammily.com