Creator of largest Black-owned multicultural doll line chats with Tamron Hall and reveals surprise

Black Girl Magic

Mar 28

By Georgia West // Black Women // EEW Magazine Online

Dr. Lisa Williams, creator of the million-dollar multicultural doll line known as The Fresh Dolls, wasn’t always in the doll-manufcaturing business.

Before becoming the creator of the largest Black-owned, multicultural doll company, she was the first African American female to graduate with a Ph.D. in marketing and logistics at Ohio State University and to receive tenure at Penn State University's College of Business.

Dr. Williams had ascended to unprecedented levels as the highest-ranking person in her field of logistics and seemed to have her career path all set. But then the trajectory of Dr. Williams’ life changed as she watched a little Black girl say something heartbreaking.

“One average Saturday, I was watching a documentary, and this beautiful chocolate-skinned little girl said she didn’t want to play with a Black doll because the Black doll’s skin was nasty,” she explained during a sit-down interview with Tamron Hall, host of the self-titled Emmy Award-winning syndicated daytime talk show.

“And then, she went even further,” continued Dr. Williams, conveying her heartfelt story about the Black little girl that gripped her heart. “She literally touched her own hand as to indicate somehow, it was nasty too. So, you see why I left what I did. I had to.”

Dr. Lisa Williams is creator of The Fresh Dolls, a million-dollar, multicultural doll line (Credit: Tamron Hall Show)

Dr. Williams’ eyes welled up with tears upon retelling the story she has told many times to communicate the emotions she felt when witnessing a 2010 study that aimed to recreate the 1940s "Doll Test." The research, conducted by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, showcased how segregation impacted Black children and revealed that they overwhelmingly preferred white dolls.

The fact that African American children’s self-perception had not improved much since the mid-20th century was unacceptable to Dr. Williams who felt compelled to take action.

So, she risked all of her stability to guarantee that no child ever felt that way again. Watch her moving interview with Hall to learn about the inspiring history that these two Black, powerful women share, and see the lovely surprise Dr. Williams brought along for Hall.