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The doll looks as if it were pieced together from five different dolls. While its torso is dark brown, its head is that of an Asian girl, with black, straight, shoulder-length hair. Its chubby limbs are of four different colors—white, black, yellow and light brown. The doll may look unusual, but it's supposed to represent something most dolls do not: racial harmony.
"The doll embodies the diversity of the United States and California," says the doll's creator, Mahvash Vakili, a 46-year-old Sunnyvale hairdresser. "The doll's torso represents Native Americans. The different colors of its legs and arms represent people of different races who have come to this land and made the United States as vibrant as it is today."
Designing a doll to promote racial tolerance has been Vakili's wish for a long time. Vakili moved to the United States from Iran in 1977 with her husband, Eric. She loves the United States for its diversity but again and again she has been frustrated by some people's narrow-mindedness.
"I remembered a bumper sticker that said 'American is blonde,'" Vakili says. "That is not true. There are Asian Americans, African Americans and Mexican-Americans. We are all Americans, but we are not all blondes."
Vakili believes that educating children about racial tolerance is the best way to eradicate discrimination. And the best way to educate children is through toys, she says.
In 1999, Vakili materialized her dream and made a doll that shows America's racial diversity. She refers to her doll as America's Anii, a Navajo word meaning "face." Customers can choose from five different heads for the doll. It can be the head of an African, Asian, Latina, European or Native American. To avoid using sweatshops common in other countries, Vakili pays more to have them made in the United States, which is why the dolls cost $69.95.
"When children see the doll, they are going to ask their parents why the doll's legs and arms have different colors," Vakili says. "It gives the parents a great opportunity to talk about racial differences with their children."
Children from every country of the world can find their country's name on the doll's skirt. The doll's dress, which has a slogan saying "We are created equal," lists the names of all countries in the world in alphabetic order.
In September of 2002, Vakili got a patent for her doll with the help of the Sunnyvale Center for Innovation, Intervention and Ideas.
Vakili had 28 shareholders within months. Most of the investors are her longtime customers and friends. Their company, Diversity Kids, was established in late April and has already sold more than 120 dolls.
Vakili's investors, like the doll, cover America's five major ethnicities. Some investors are products of interracial marriages. Some are in interracial marriages themselves.
"Children of interracial marriages often have an identity crisis," says Mary Miles-Finigan, a 50-year-old technical writer. Her mother is Mexican and her father a mix of Irish and Native American.Miles-Finigan hopes children of interracial marriages gain courage from the doll.
"The doll is not white, black or yellow. It has a little bit of everything," Miles-Finigan says. "I hope children of mixed races can realize they don't need to look white, black or yellow to feel American. They are all Americans."
Peggy Lowe, chairwoman of the company's board, says racial harmony is more important now than ever. Lowe, 50, is a Caucasian. Her husband, Prester, is an African American.
For more information about Diversity Kids, call 408.481.1700.
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Photograph by Doug Zimmerman