Gender-neutral toys are not exactly new in the industry. A growing number of manufacturers aim to break stereotypes on what and how girls and boys should play. For instance, a few years ago, Mattel made headlines when it cast a young boy in a Moschino Barbie commercial. The same company also launched models with “real” figures, boasting various skin tones and body sizes. MGA Entertainment, meanwhile, released dolls that celebrate intelligence and teach STEM.

Similarly, dolls have been developed and marketed specifically for young boys such as the Boy Story line. Last year, Smyths toys also broke stereotypes by featuring on an advertisement a boy playing dress-up in a princess gown commercial.

Now, the Kingston-based Tonner Doll Company is seeking to break more barriers by debuting the first transgender doll at the New York Toy Fair 2017. Modeled after TLC’s teen reality star Jazz Jennings, the 18in doll was sculpted by CEO Robert Tonner, who first saw Jennings on a TV program called 20/20, hosted by Barbara Walters.

Herself an LGBTQ activist, Jazz Jennings has identified as a woman as early as two years old. At sixteen, Jennings is already an honorary co-founder of the Transkids Purple Rainbow Foundation and a youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign.

The Jazz Jennings doll has a plastic body with no gender identifiers. It is scheduled to be sold in specialty stores and Tonner’s online shop by July this year.

This transgender doll continues Tonner’s line of models based on “socially transformational heroes”, which includes plus-size model Emme and active octogenarian model Carmen Dell’Orefice.

IMAGE: Source: Charlotte Observer

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