Girls, Boys, and Toys

There’s a lot of speculation about how the kinds of toys a child plays with influences the person that child grows up to be. Does the toy cause a child to develop in a certain way? Or does a child naturally gravitate toward the things that interest her/him? Maybe a bit of both?

When I was a child, I had one of these.

I wasn’t much of a doll person, but Mimi was awesome. She had a record player in her back, and you could buy little records that played “I’d like to teach the world to sing” in different languages. The records also came with books that had the lyrics translated *and* transliterated for English speakers.

Oh Mah Gawd.

I grew up, of course, to become a translator. And to have a thing about wearing berets.

Without getting all “Kids today!” on you, did anyone notice that, in addition to being a musical polyglot, Mimi is normally proportioned and not showing any skin?

I think we could use some more dolls like this. For whoever wants to play with them.