Crayola Multicultural Markers

It's pretty amazing how times have changed in the span of a generation for multicultural representation in dolls and books since I was a kid. You may remember my write up about my Asian doll search. SInce I wrote that post, I've wondered why it was so important to me that my (white looking) half-Asian kid have a doll that looked Asian (still haven't gotten around to getting one, by the way). This is due in part to thinking back to my own childhood and how I happily played with Barbie dolls and never really questioned why my dolls were white when I wasn't. And I always just used "peach" (Am I imagining that Crayola had a crayon called "flesh" at one point?) whenever I colored in the people I drew, even though I knew that it didn't look quite right (no one is really that shade of Crayola peach).

But I probably never questioned it because I didn't have a choice! Crayola Multicultural Markers, where were you when I was a kid?? Not that I can really decipher the skin tones/ethnicity by these names: Tan, Beige, Tawny, Gold, Beige, Bronze, Terra Cotta, Mahogany and Sienna (which one would I be?) but it's pretty cool that kids have more than "peach" choose from. On a related note, I find it rather amusing that my 2 year old has been calling herself "pink" lately- I guess because her palette range is limited to all of maybe 8 or so colors and pink is the closest. (For what it's worth, mommy is pink too).

At the Crayola Store.