Aimee Picchi | Special for USA TODAY

USA TODAY

Mattel’s new line of gender-neutral dolls wants to “invite everyone in.” But adult shoppers may not be so willing to accept the invitation, with a recent survey finding only about 5% would buy one of its new Creatable World dolls as a holiday gift.

Even though few shoppers say they are willing to open their wallets, about one-quarter expressed a positive view of gender-neutral toys, according to a survey of more than 700 consumers from Horizon Media.

Mattel

That indicates Creatable World may be at the vanguard of a longer-term shift toward toys that aren’t labeled as either “pink” for girls or “blue” for boys, says Karen Van Vleet, the vice president of strategy at Horizon Media’s WHY Group, which conducted the survey and studies consumer trends.

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“While people are open to it, it shows that fundamental things that are instilled in us are hard to move,” Van Vleet notes. “It’s hard to go against what they were brought up with their whole lives.”

Still, she adds, “It's signaling to where we are going. The more these are available on shelves and become more of the consumer mix, the more it'll be seen as a normal toy.”

Creatable World dolls are rolling out slowly, available only at online stores such as Amazon.com this fall, although Mattel says it plans to introduce them to brick-and-mortar retailers early next year. With a price tag of about $30, the toy is considerably more expensive than some models of Mattel’s most famous doll, Barbie, which retails for as little as $8.

At the same time, the toy industry is under increasing pressure to rethink how playthings are marketed to children and their parents. Gender-specific marketing for toys has increased during the past several decades, with San Jose State University professor Elizabeth Sweet noting that toys in the 1970s weren’t typically marketed to either girls or boys. But by the 1990s, it had become commonplace.

More recently, retailers have also come under fire for separating toys into aisles targeted to either boys or girls. In 2015, Target removed gender-based store signs in many of its departments, including toys. A campaign based in the U.K. called Let Toys Be Toys says that it’s had success convincing more than a dozen retailers to remove signs that identify toys by gender.

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“We believe all toys are gender neutral. It's the advertising and marketing that says toys are just for girls or boys,” says Tessa Trabue, a campaigner at Let Toys Be Toys. “We were really pleased that Mattel has responded to parents and children's concerns about stereotyping.”

Mattel says it believes there’s currently a gap between the toys that are stereotypically targeted to boys and those aimed at girls. Creatable World is aiming to fill that void.

Change might happen slowly, but shifts between generations are already visible, with Horizon Media finding that 10% of consumers under 35 said they would buy the doll, compared with just 3% of those over 55 years old.

Monica Dreger, Mattel’s vice president of consumer insights, says children who tested the doll enjoyed its ability to promote self-expression, such as allowing kids to pick different hairstyles and clothing.. Asked about the Horizon survey, she added that the doll was first and foremost aimed at “answering what kids want in their toys.”

Mattel

“In testing, we found that kids have a better understanding of self-identity than their parents,” she says. “We also heard that parents are excited about a doll option that doesn’t play into gender norms and offers something more inclusive.”

While it’s unlikely that “extreme gender packages” will vanish from toy shelves, Dreger says she believes it’s likely that more gender-neutral toys and packaging will be added to shelves in the next few years, especially as younger consumers increasingly value inclusivity and self-expression.

And as children become more familiar with the toy, she predicts, “parents will respond."