Why you should give kids toys that look like them

Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2018 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

Now more than ever, it’s particularly evident that children need to be exposed to diversity as young as possible. It’s a topic that can inspire hesitation among a lot of parents, but setting the foundation for inclusivity isn’t as hard as you might think. Interactive play with diverse toys can be a great method to accomplish this. 

Diversity – which is often used in tandem with inclusion – in this context refers to having access to toys that represent individuals of a range of races/ethnicities, ability statuses, and genders. There are other aspects of diversity that are more challenging to represent without backstories. For those, books are a wonderful way to introduce aspects of diversity like sexual orientation, financial class, language, neurodiversity, and mental health.  Read more...