Could a Barbie with real life proportions revolutionize beauty norms?

American artist Nikolay Lamm has designed a Barbie based on the average proportions of a 19 year old American woman, to prove that “average is beautiful”.

Ever since her launch in 1959, Barbie’s long legs, impossibly skinny waist and large breasts have shown young girls an unattainable model of beauty. Her unrealistic proportions have been much criticized in western media for promoting an unhealthy body ideal: a real life woman with her proportions would only have room for half a liver. Yet Barbie has inspired many women to aspire to this figure, in some cases, even getting plastic surgery, like Valeria Lukyanova, a Ukrainian model who altered her face and body to better resemble the iconic doll.

In reaction to this, American artist Nickolay Lamm designed Lamilly, a Barbie-like doll based on US government measurements of an average 19 year old American woman. On his website, he posts a video explaining the aim of his project: « that our Girls grow up to become happier, stronger women, truly confident and proud of their own bodies”. He told journalists: "If we criticize skinny models, we should at least be open to the possibility that Barbie may negatively influence young girls as well.." He believes that we can’t wait for toy manufacturors to change things, we ourselves have to take action, and so he is relying on crowdfunding to finance his project. The idea has been met with a lot of enthusiasm, and he is close to reaching the $95,000 he needs to start production.

Looking at photos of Lamilly standing next to Barbie, the real life proportion doll looks a little alien, proving how much the beauty norm of Barbie is engrained into our mind. This seems to show how important Lamm’s project is.

"Finally someone has been brave enough to show what a woman really looks like," says Pat Hartley, body image expert "It's taken such a long time for a doll like this to even get close to production because a lot of people have been making a lot of money from projecting the image of the stick-thin woman as the ideal. People in the diet and fashion industry. It's time someone fought back."

Similarly, singer Demi Lovato, who often speaks out against preventing eating disorders in young girls, tweeted her approval of Lammily her more than 15 million followers. “If normal Barbie can be made, I feel she'll have a more positive influence on girls than Barbie in its current form. Normal Barbie shows that you are beautiful, just the way you are.”

Maybe if girls grow up with dolls that look like real women, the unattainably skinny, blond and fair ideal of beauty might disappear.