Legos Diversity

When people hear about Legos they almost always think of those little blocks that kids use along with their imagination and build and create new things. While that’s true, Legos are mainly known for being building blocks, they are also so much more. The Lego company is constantly coming out with new things; building sets with different themes and figurines representing so many different characters and people. Legos are also something that are becoming more culturally diverse as time goes on. There has been an evolution of Legos and what they have become are and how they have been more inclusive, why it is important to be representative, and the benefits of seeing diversity from a young age. Legos are something that started off as simply some

Dr. Seeta Pai, a Harvard University Graduate of the School of Education, lists five reasons that being exposed to diversity at a young age are influential to children’s social and emotional development. The first reason is that it helps limit stereotypes. Children are influenced by the things they are surrounded by. If a girl goes through life only seeing boys play with Legos she is going to think that Legos are only meant for boys and that she can’t play with them, when that is not true. Or, if she only sees boy Lego figurines she will think they aren’t meant for her. Since Lego has added figures with girls having jobs that are stereotypically meant for boys and characters with disabilities being able to play sports, these stereotypes can be eliminated. The second point Pai mentions is that when children are exposed to more diversity they are less likely to exhibit racism later in life. Legos used to have yellow “skin”, what did children think of when they saw the yellow characters. A stereotype today is that Asians have yellow skin, was the company trying to make the figure Asian or did they think that yellow was a neutral color? The answer is unknown, but as time went on the Lego company released the figurines with actual skin tones that are seen around the world. In sets with a wide gradient of skin tones children become more exposed to realizing that every person is different and see that as normal. So, when they see the different skin tones on actual people they view that has normal, thus helping to eliminate racism by becoming accustomed to people with different features than the people they see every day. The next reason, by interacting with different views and dealing with toys that may not be exactly like the child using the toy, they are more likely to accept others. If children play with the