As 'Barbie' becomes the only billion-dollar blockbuster solely directed by a woman, one doll maker in the Bay Area is hoping to break barriers of her own.
When 3-year-old Jillian Mak asked for her first doll last year, her mom, Elenor Mak, couldn't wait to get her one."There were rows and rows of Caucasian dolls [with] blond hair and blue eyes," she said."And then, on the very side, there were these ethnic characters that looked ambiguously Asian, Latina. You just weren't sure."
"Dolls are not just a toy that's in passing," she explained. It's the child's first imaginary friend. It's the child trying to make sense of the world." Then, she searched for an Asian toy maker. For the next few months, they researched everything from eye shape to skin tones to hair color. While there were a few Asian American dolls by big-name companies like American Girl, she thought they were"too stereotypical."She named her doll Jilly Bing — Jilly for her daughter's nickname, and Bing is the Chinese word for cookie. One of Jilly's accessories is a hat that flips into an egg tart.
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