When a company decides to “celebrate diversity,” who’s the party for?
toys
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Ken Doll Reboot: Beefy, Cornrowed, and Pan-Racial
A behind-the-scenes look at the redesign process of the new, diverse lineup of Ken Dolls.
Posted inBooks, Business & Tech, Nonfiction, Quotes
The Early Principles That Guided the Makers of LEGO
In his book Brick by Brick, David Robertson outlines the early successes and failures of the Denmark-based LEGO Group.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How an ‘American Girl’ Character Is Born
The company is meticulous when it comes to product development, particularly for the BeForever line. “It takes about three years to launch a new character because you do a lot of research,” explains Opland. The BeForever books tackle a range of difficult issues—Addy Walker is an escaped slave, Samantha speaks out against child labor—and so American […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Using the British Railway Mania of the 1840s to Explain the Beanie Baby Craze
Andrew Odlyzko, a mathematician and bubble expert, proposes a simpler theory explaining speculative panics in his study on the British Railway Mania of the 1840s. Odlyzko credits Railway Mania in part to a “collective hallucination,” an extreme form of groupthink wherein a significant chunk of society feverishly buys into a shared dream with no regard for the skeptics and […]
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction, Story
Friendship Is Complicated
Art, commerce, and the battle for the soul of My Little Pony.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction
Friendship Is Complicated
Art, commerce, and the battle for the soul of My Little Pony.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Meet the Kids Who Don’t Want Toys For Christmas
It had been only two days since Ruth Soukup had re-organized her daughters’ room, and there were still a few toys on the floor that her kids, then three and six years old, refused to pick up. “I would say to the girls, ‘If you can’t take care of your stuff, I’m going to have to take it all away,’” Soukup recalls. It was an empty threat, until that afternoon when Soukup realized she genuinely “wanted it all gone.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why Did 'Girl Toys' All Become Pink?
Pink is a funny thing. In the early days of the 20th century, pink was not necessarily a girl color. I’ve even heard that pink was considered a popular color for boys because it was a lighter version of red, which has always been seen as powerful and masculine. But as the 20th century went […]