Inspired by her own daughter, a Quebec mother is taking discarded, oversexualized dolls, wiping off their unrealistic features, and crafting unique toys modelled after girls around the world.
Lizette Flores, the founder of Pixan Dolls, said she started upcycling old dolls because she wanted to help her oldest daughter embrace all kinds of beauty.
“I really want kids to know that they can define what’s beautiful. It’s not a company that’s going to dictate (to) us how we should look,” Flores told CTV Montreal.
To create dolls that represent different types of beauty, the mother of three starts with old toys, collected from flea markets and garage sales -- their hair often knotted and faces caked in painted-on make-up.
Flores then cleans the dolls and cuts and softens their hair. She scrubs off their make-up and paints on fresh faces. Then she sews or knits comfortable clothing for them.
A Tasmanian artist gained fame earlier in the year for a similar process.
The end products are unique toys that reflect a diverse range of beauty.
"I try to give them a personality and also a heritage," Flores said.
So far she has created Cuban, Inuit and Afghan-inspired dolls. One of her dolls represents the Yaqui, indigenous peoples from Mexico and the Southwest United States. A red-headed doll was inspired by North American homesteaders.
Flores also tries to give her dolls realistic features, including freckles and birthmarks. One of her latest creations is an albino doll, with fair skin, light blue eyes, and white-blond eyebrows.
"The idea behind painting all of the skin imperfections is for girls to realize it is really not real to have a perfectly even skin tone," Flores said.
Lilia Goldfarb, the director of youth services at the YWCA, said Pixan dolls offer a welcome alternative to other toys, which often send the message that "to be acknowledged in society, you have to be sexy."
Flores sells the dolls online, through her virtual Pixan Dolls shop. The store is named after a Mayan word which means "the soul that brings life to the body."
On her online shop, Flores said she hopes that her process of repainting, repairing and re-selling old toys can "bring life to dolls that have a story, a background, and a real soul."
With files from CTV Montreal's Aphrodite Salas
