Since last year's news that Tonner Doll was changing in a big way, there was nothing more - not even an inkling towards the new direction the company, actually the two companies now, Tonner and Phyn and Aero, will take. Until now. Next weekend, during Toy Fair 2017, Tonner will present a new doll, Jazz Jennings. But it is not just a doll. It is one based on a real person. A transgender person.
Tonner unfortunately did not even bother to email their client list about the doll, posting instead on their Facebook account the article about their press release from another website. The doll photo is from Jennings' own Facebook page. All we know is that it was approved by Jazz and her parents and it will be an 18" vinyl doll sculpted by Robert Tonner, available in specialty stores and on www.tonnerdoll.com in July, 2017. So who is Jazz Jennings?
16 year old Jazz Jennings, transgender star of TLC's docuseries "I Am Jazz", is an honorary co-founder of the Transkids Purple Rainbow Foundation. Jazz speaks at universities, medical schools, conferences, conventions and symposiums all over the country. She's also a You Tube Vlogger, a youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign and an advocate for GLAAD. Jazz is the youngest person ever to be recognised in The Advocate Magazine's, "Top Forty Under 40" annual list. She was named as one of TIME Magazine's Most Influential Teens for 2014 and 2015. She is also listed on Huffington Post's 14 Most Fearless Teens of 2014.
This doll is very pretty, as is Jazz. We have seen her show and I agree that she is a very brave soul. She knew at a very young age that she was a girl. She started identifying as a girl at the age of 4 or 5 I think. She took hormone inhibiters at a young age too to suppress getting male features during puberty. She is pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteThis is just my opinion, but I don't think Tonner is managing this transition between his "old" company and the "new" one well at all. As you said, there was no communication with existing customers about this doll which feels like a slap in the face as someone who has been buying his dolls for 20+ years now. I hope he gets better advice about communicating with his customers quickly.
ReplyDeleteAs for the doll, it looks well made but it seems like a play scale doll and the head seems disproportionately large for the body. As a fashion doll collector this doll doesn't interest me.