Born Awarded the 'Let Toys Be Toys' Good Practice Award

We are thrilled to have been awarded a Toymark Good Practice Award from "Let Toys Be Toys", an organisation that asks the toy and publishing industries to stop limiting children’s interests by promoting some toys and books as only suitable for girls, and others only for boys.

Let Toys Be Toys is keen to recognise shops and websites that are displaying toys and books in a way that is welcoming and inclusive to all children.  Born Founder, Eva Fernandes, talks about why this issue is important to Born.

Today I got an email from an organisation called 'Let Toys Be Toys'. A customer from our Stoke Newington store nominated the store and website because they liked the fact that we do not display toys by gender. 

To be honest I had not heard of the organisation until I got the email.  For us, selling non gender specific toys was not a conscious decision, it was more that we sell toys for babies and toddlers, not toys for girls and toys for boys. 

My personal experience as a mother is that my children were drawn towards toys that they found interesting and engaging, some were gender specific and some weren't.  My son happened to like playing imaginary games with his 'guys' for hours on end, but my daughter wasn't really into playing with dolls that much.  But she was quite adept at swinging from the banisters, monkey style, whereas he never even attempted it!

This leads into the whole nurture/nature discussion. Do children naturally migrate towards specific toys or does society steer them that way from an early age? As retailers, there can be pressure to categorise according to gender and giants like Google are increasing that pressure by requesting gender categories for products in their Google Shopping feed. Are they responding to demand or is demand being driven by them?

As a parent, I do think it is my aim to offer all the options to children regardless of their gender. It is up to them to choose which of those options appeals most at that time. Nurturing their curiosity to discover the world through toys and play is one part of that.  But more important is having a belief that they can be, do and have whatever they want in the world regardless of whether they are a boy or a girl. If that message has transferred to Born and therefore to our customers, then that is fantastic!

Love
Eva

Visit our range of toys for Babies, Toddlers and Children at Born