When I was a little girl, I was constantly searching for something that looked like me. Though it wasn’t that long ago, foreign adoption was not as prevalent then as it is now and there were few minorities of any kind where I grew up. On the television, in the newspaper ads, on the billboards…I was surrounded by children with blond hair and blue eyes who played with the latest toys, ate the brand new cereal or visited the most popular theme park. I wanted to see things that represented me.
A lot of that was because there were no other children in my area that looked like me. Don’t get me wrong. I really was well adjusted and, for the most part, very comfortable with the fact that I was adopted from Korea. I loved playing with my friends and I didn’t care that they didn’t look like me. However, even the most well adjusted child looks for the comfort of having things that are like you.
Home computers and the internet hadn’t invaded the common household when I was a child. The internet has opened up whole new worlds for the Korean adoptee. It allows parents to purchase dolls, cars, traditional outfits, etc… and have them delivered right to our front doors. I envy my son this luxury, but I’m so glad it’s there. With a few clicks of my mouse and my virtual credit card, my son has the Korean police car (with working siren) that I would gladly toss out the window on any given night.
I coveted my Hong Kong Barbie and my doll, Sun Lee, that my parents had purchased through my adoption agency (all the way from Korea), but I always knew that they were hard to come by. I knew that I couldn’t go to the local store and find an Asian doll on the shelf and bring her home. Everything that I had that looked like me had either been made for me (by friends and family) or it had been something my parents had to really search for.
Even now, with the increase in diversity awareness, we generally can’t go find things on the shelf…but we can bring things to our children. The global economy provides us with books that have Asian characters and dolls with long black hair. Hurray for the internet! Thank you for helping me to provide my son with the things he’ll need.
Mo,
It is so wierd that you posted on this subject today. I was actually just on the internet looking for life books and come across a web site entitled Asiaforkids.com. They had a big selection of books, toys, and dolls geared for Asian children. They have a new doll that is so cute. When you squeeze the babies hand, the doll will say I love you in Korean or Chinese. (you can choose) I book marked the site and thought to myself how nice it was to have this type of availability. In this respect,the internet has brought Korea a little closer to us here in the U.S.
As far as advertising goes it’s so funny how things have changed a bit since you were a kid. My oldest daughter modeled and did commercial work just a couple years ago. She always hated being so white because many times she lost jobs because she was told that she was not ethnic looking enough. I am going through the process of adopting from Korea, and I so appreciate the fact that retailers have started to realize that we live in ethnically diverse country and to be successful, you must market to everyone.