Design and Prototyping:

Creator Nickolay Lamm
©Nickolay Lamm

Lammily was developed my Nickolay Lamm in 2014. His ideas started in 2013 when Lamm wanted to know what Barbie would look like as average women (Carter, 2014). With research starting with statistics from Centers for Disease and Prevention he found that the average women weighed 166.2 pounds and has a 37.5-inch waist. His idea came from inspiration during his high school days, where he describes it as “the worst time of my life.” The name Lammily came from his last name combined with the word family. His family members were supportive and helped create boxes and stickers to be sent with the dolls.

Manufacturing and Production:

The first doll was created with a 3D printing model that cost about $200 per printing. When it came to designing the doll Lamm recalled; “I thought how am I going to make this white 3D printed model look like a fashion doll? […] The rational part of my brain realized that my arts and crafts were pathetic and so I just Photoshop the white model to look like a toy doll.” With the help of artist Thomas Desjardins a prototype of the doll was made in the form of a 3D photo. (Lamely, 2015) Children ages 5-12 years old were taken in a focus group to determine how they liked the doll. St. Edmund’s Academy, an elementary school in Pittsburg, was the main focus group. The kids reactions were that “she’s pretty,” “she looks like my sister,”

Lamely original Photoshop prototype
©Nickolay Lamm, Founder of Lammily.

“she’s unique not like other dolls that I have, she looks real,” “her belly button looks realistic even!” (Lamm, 2014). With months of hard work and a grand total of $15,000 of Lamm’s hard earned money he published his prototype and video on Tilt.com in hopes of finding crowd funders. At 9 AM on March 5, 2014 Lammily became live and multiple journal publications were ready with interviews and links to the sight to be published. By 11 AM the same day contributions were being made in rates of thousands. By the next morning the funding goal of $95,000 had been accomplished. 30 days later Lammily had over 13,000 backers in 62 different countries and a total of $501,000 in cofounding.

Marketing:

The dolls are marketed to all children, within the focus groups both boys and girls were encourage to play with and express their feelings on the dolls. However, due to this doll being a real life replica of Barbie I would say currently the doll is appreciated by girls moreover boys. Each doll averages on $25. In 2013 Lamm emailed the Photoshop photos to Huffington Post, the photos went viral and soon big name news outlets were contacting

Beauty Proportions: Barbie VS. Lammily

Lamm for an interview. The first public review besides interviews with news sources came from Demi Lovato, she tweeted about loving the idea of realistic Barbie’s. The selling process is currently located predominantly on Lammily.com. However, there are a few different brick and mortar stores where you can purchase a Lammily doll in person. For Oregon the only location of the physical doll at this moment is at Amazing Fairytale Parties in Portland, Oregon.

 User Support:

For user support you can contact Lammily through mail, phone, or email. Located on their website is also a FAQ page where they try to answer questions that frequently come up but are welcoming to other questions, suggestions, or ideas that one may have.

These dolls are easy to care for. The have a plastic body and silicone hair. To wash the dolls hair you will softly comb out any tangles, use lots of conditioner to keep the dolls hair soft and smooth, and then wash with shampoo, condition again, and comb out again. A tip for the dolls hair care is gentle, the harder you pull on the dolls hair the easier it will come out (Susan, 2009). The body can easily be wiped down with a moist towel to remove any dirt or scuffs.

Recycling and Disposal 

Information on how to dispose of a Lammily doll is currently not assessable, however, in the past there has been research done on deposing of a Barbie. Discarding a Barbie is complicated, in most cases families will donate a doll before they throw it away. Research has been done on the older versions of Barbie from the 70’s and 80’s, these dolls were said to be somewhat dangerous to put into a landfill because of the materials that were used in the first few generations of Barbie, Mattel is using safer materials since 2007, however, there is not enough information on how to dispose of a Barbie.  (Umbra, 2015)