PUSH FOR ETHNICALLY DIVERSE DOLLS NOT JUST A BLACK AND WHITE ISSUE.

Byline: Sallie Han New York Daily News 

There are dolls that giggle and dolls that wiggle. A few can roller-skate, and others sip, slurp and wet. But just try to find a doll that looks like 5-year-old Stephanie Kim, a Korean-American.

Her mother has tried - without success.

On toy-store shelves, diversity is a black or white issue - and Asians and Latinos, the country's fastest-growing groups, are left out.

At two Toys R Us stores in Manhattan, there is an African-American doll for almost every blond, blue-eyed vinyl baby on the shelf - an improvement over the days when trying to find a brunet doll was like hunting for heffalumps in Central Park. But there are virtually no Asian or Latino dolls.

As one Puerto Rican mother shopping at the Toys R Us on 33rd Street in New York laments, ``You would think there are no Chinese children, no Puerto Rican children playing with dolls in New York. Where are the toys for our children?''

In general, major toy companies have been slow to recognize the need for toys that represent children of all different backgrounds. Mattel introduced the first African-American Barbie in 1968, but impossibly perfect, plastic Barbie had no Asian-American friends until 1981.

In fact, at top-of-the-line toy store FAO Schwarz, diversity is still primarily a brunet or blond issue. There are few African-American baby dolls, and none that are Asian or Latino, aside from collector's dolls in international costumes.

Jodi Levin at the Toy Manufacturers of America claims there is little supply because there is little demand. ``It's true the industry has far more black dolls than Hispanic dolls and Asian dolls,'' she says. ``But I think those numbers reflect the population.''

Others say that the demand is already there. Susie Park of Kang and Lee Advertising in Manhattan says there are more than 9 million Asian-Americans, just under 4 percent of the total U.S. population, who will spend at least $150 billion on a range of goods and services this year. Latinos, who make up 10.3 percent of the U.S. population, represent $228 billion in buying power, according to Dick Thomas of Miami-based market research company Stragetic Research.

``It's a rare Hispanic household that doesn't buy a toy,'' Thomas says.

Frances Gershon, founder of Constructive Playthings, says the conventional wisdom within the toy industry has been that children would rather play with blond, blue-eyed dolls. ``But the toy companies didn't offer another choice,'' says Gershon, whose toy company makes a number of multiethnic dolls. ``I think children have always wanted and needed toys they could see themselves reflected in.''

Child-development expert Joanne Oppenheim says toy makers are waking up to American children's needs.

``It may not happen fast enough for your child, but things are changing,'' says Oppenheim, co-founder of the Oppenheim Toy Porfolio, an independent review of children's toys, books and videos.

She notes that such dolls always have been available at small shops in ethnic enclaves such as New York's Chinatown. But now mainstream toy makers are making these toys more accessible to all children.

At Mattel, makers of multicultural Cabbage Patch Kids, Lisa McKendall notes some crossover, such as African-American children playing with Asian dolls. ``I think it's important for kids to play with dolls that look like lots of different people. Playing with a doll that looks like them is just as limiting as playing with a doll that doesn't.''

The Olmec toy company, which specializes in multiethnic dolls, makes two Asian dolls, Mai and Kim, as well as Consuelo the Latin American Princess. All are sold in stores like Toys R Us.

Of course, certain challenges remain for toy makers - for example, creating dolls that represent ethnic backgrounds without falling into racial stereotypes.

``This takes us a to a very complex debate over identity,'' notes marketing expert Ibrahim Malick, president of South Asian Media Wise and a Pakistani-American. ``Who is Asian? Who is Hispanic? A person of Indian background does not look the same as a Chinese.''

As the father of two girls, ages 9 and 10, he says, ``I want my daughters to have something to relate to, a doll they think they look like.''

There are signs that toy makers are taking seriously the issue of how playthings look. For example, the Tyco company now makes an African-American doll called Kenya in three different skin tones and hair colors.

Oppenheim suggests that parents and children work together on personalizing their playthings - for example, by making different costumes and accessories for the dolls.

``When the first African-American dolls appeared, they were really white faces painted another color, and that's not true anymore,'' Oppenheim says. ``You will find dolls that are not stereotypes, but that reflect that we don't all look the same.''