A SUPER-SKINNY doll on display in a chain of toy shops in Sweden has caused a storm of protest among parents worried that their daughters might identify with “Defa Lucy Mermaid Princess”.
Shocked Swedish parents viewed photos of the doll which a mother snapped on her phone and uploaded to Facebook, forcing the retailer to remove the toy from its shelves amid the uproar.
A visit to toy chain Barnens Hus (Children’s House) by Marja-Liisa Luther from Umea in northern Sweden with her young daughters last week resulted in a storm of protest reopening the debate about the worrying trend of young girls craving the “skinny ideal” and engaging in extreme diet methods.
One in five seven-year-old Swedish girls wishes she was thinner and the percentage of young girls actively trying to lose weight is rising, research into eating disorders recently found.
When Ms Luther saw the newly-launched doll, – skinny enough, she said, to make Barbie look plump – aimed at girls aged four to six, she was “disgusted”.
Ms Luther, a trainee pre-school teacher, is convinced that children are influenced by the toys they play with and some would believe their emaciated doll was a normal shape.
"They might feel it is natural to be super skinny and think, 'Well, maybe this is the way I should look too'," she told Sweden's online newspaper, The Local. "It looked simply awful. The other dolls are surely skinny enough as it is, but this was extreme."
According to a spokesman for the toyshop chain, the doll has been removed from the shelves while they have “a closer look at her”, but he did not think she would go back on the shelves again.