Meet Lammily, the anti-Barbie

Imagine a doll, a Barbie if you will, without her hair all in place, freckles on her face and even an acne spot on her cheek. Nickolay Lamm, a US-based graphic artist and researcher behind this unusual creation, calls it the imperfect Barbie or Lammily. The Lammily is a believable doll and a stark contrast to the perfect-bodied Barbie. What led Lamm to design her? He tells ET Panache:

The inspiration for Lammily

I was shopping for a doll for a family friend and noticed that a lot of the dolls looked like supermodels. There’s nothing wrong with looking like that but I thought if there were dolls that looked liked typical people as well, it would be as if the wall of toys is saying, “It’s okay to look like a supermodel and it’s okay to look like a typical person”. Barbie is great. I am just trying to create an alternative.

Conceptualising the doll

We started with a digital 3D model. We 3D printed this model and adjusted it further. Then the final 3D model was used to make the moulds, which were used in manufacturing.



A doll for other ethnicities

I’d say the doll is loosely based off the average measurements of a 19-year-old American woman.

In the future, we plan for the dolls to have different ethnicities. We’ll also have dolls of different body shapes. I’ve had a lot of emails suggest that we should make an Indian doll.

Barbie’s impact on kids

Despite some suggesting that I don’t like Barbie, it is not the case. It was never Barbie’s intention to suggest what is “ideal beauty”; she’s just a toy. But I feel if there’s diversity in the types of bodies that are represented, it can have a positive impact on a child’s psyche.