One of the few items on the Christmas list of Emily Noreen's 4-year-old daughter is a doll she can call her own.
"I want her to have something preferably that looks like her, which is hard because their father is African-American and I'm white," said Noreen, a 35-year-old Minneapolis resident. "There's not a whole lot in her complexion."
So she was heartened to find more than one option in the Our Generation line, a less-expensive alternative to American Girl, while perusing the toy aisles of Target. After some deliberation, she picked out a doll named Nahla, whose skin color is a bit darker than her daughter's but whose curly hair was pretty close.
As consumers finish up their holiday shopping in the coming weeks, they will find a markedly more diverse selection of dolls to choose from at big-box stores.
In addition to Nahla, Target now carries more than 20 racially diverse dolls in the Our Generation line with names such as Valencia, Suyin and Anaya and who have a wide range of skin tones, hair textures and eye colors. Target recently doubled its number of multicultural dolls so they now make up a third of all characters in its Our Generation lineup. The selection varies by store, but the full range is available online.
The Our Generation brand, carried exclusively at Target at mass retail in addition to specialty stores, has become one of Target's bestselling toy brands. The Minneapolis-based company has tripled the shelf space for the dolls in about 20 stores this holiday season and plans to roll out a bigger display in more stores next year.
The appetite for the brand, said Mark Tritton, Target's chief merchandising officer, is a testament to the diversity of the retailer's customer base.
"It reflects the multicultural nature of our guest," he said. "Letting a girl find herself in a doll is really important."