PRIDE PALS DOLLS
COME OUT & PLAY!
Initial analogue doll sketches. From left to right: Gilbert, Marsha, Alan, Freddie, Oscar, Sally, Bayard, Frida.
First doll sketch. Initially, the line was named “Rainbow Road” before being renamed to “Pride Pals” later in development.
The colors of the Pride flag have specific meanings—pink = love, red = liveliness, orange = healing, yellow = sunshine, green = nature, turquoise = magical, indigo = serenity and purple = spirit. Each doll was assigned a different color from the Pride flag to inspire their individual color palette and character personalties.
The dolls on display at my senior exhibition. They were intentionally placed low with their diaries easily accessible to encourage kids to interact with them.
BOX DESIGN
The dolls are packaged in a way that gives kids insight into the doll’s personalities through character bios and illustrations. This practice, frequently utilized by existing doll brands (Monster High, Bratz), establishes immediate familiarity with the characters, making them more compelling to kids. The boxes were also intentionally designed to be plastic-free and use as little material as possible.
Each diary corresponds to one of the selected queer figures: Gilbert Baker, Marsha P. Johnson, Alan Turing, Freddie Mercury, Oscar Wilde, Sally Ride, Bayard Rustin, & Frida Kahlo.
Each doll comes with a fully illustrated diary that showcases the life and achievements of the coordinating figure that inspired the doll’s character.
2019
Pride Pals, my senior thesis, is a line of educational plush dolls inspired by queer history figures. Intended to be a positive introduction to queer history for younger kids, the line focuses on a diverse, queer cast of characters that invite kids to engage with queer history and queer identity in a way that feels accessible and relatable to them without talking down to them.
Each doll is inspired by a different queer history figure. I specifically chose individuals that showcased achievements across a variety of historical advances–science, art, music, and general activism–to provide kids with a small sampling of the ways queer people have positively impacted history and society as a whole. While the dolls are not intended to necessarily look like or represent “child versions” of the selected queer figures, each doll takes the name and general interests/personality traits of their selected individual.
