Saturday, July 26, 2014

Race in Toyland: A Nonwhite Doll Crosses Over - NYTimes.com

Race in Toyland: A Nonwhite Doll Crosses Over - NYTimes.com: Jade Goss, age 2, looks as if she just stepped out of the wildly popular “Doc McStuffins” cartoon.

“She has the Doc McStuffins sheets. She has the Doc McStuffins doll. She has the Doc McStuffins purse. She has Doc McStuffins clothes,” said Jade’s mother, Melissa Woods, of Lynwood, Calif.

“I think what attracts her is, ‘Hey, I look like her, and she looks like me,’ ” Ms. Woods said of the character, an African-American child who acts as a doctor to her stuffed animals.

With about $500 million in sales last year, Doc McStuffins merchandise seems to be setting a record as the best-selling toy line based on an African-American character, industry experts say.

Its blockbuster success reflects, in part, the country’s changing consumer demographics, experts say, with more children from minority backgrounds providing an expanding, less segregated marketplace for shoppers and toymakers.