Article By Samantha Kamman
Minnesota is reportedly rolling out “MyGender Dolls” with removable, swappable genitals to schoolchildren as young as 4 years old to help them “realize all the different options that exist for who they can be — regardless of their body parts.”
The “MyGender Dolls” are launching this year, according to the product’s website, which claims the dolls are designed for clinicians and educators who encounter what the site describes as “gender diverse children.” The dolls are intended for children between the ages of 4 and 10, the website says.
The “MyGender Dolls” project won a cash prize from the University of Minnesota’s MINCORPS program, which is part of the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub, The College Fix reported. The Great Lakes I-Corps Hub is a National Science Foundation-funded network of 16 Midwest universities.
In addition to the cash prize from the university’s MINCORPS program, the doll program also received funding from the university’s Early Innovation Fund. According to the school’s website, the Early Innovation Fund is a competitive funding program that offers up to $10,000 per project.
In a Sunday X post, Scarlett Johnson, a Moms for Liberty advocate and host of the M4L Unleashed Podcast, expressed satisfaction that the report about the “MyGender Dolls” is receiving attention.
“This shocking story is finally going viral!” Johnson wrote.
The conservative advocate had published a thread on X earlier this month about the University of Minnesota’s “therapeutic” doll line for “gender diverse children ages 4–10.”
“The dolls are designed so a child mixes and matches body parts and presentation,” Johnson stated.
“Supporters say it helps kids express themselves. But the core concept — gender as separate from the body — sits beyond what most 4–5 year olds have cognitively developed, but most importantly this ideology is just that — a worldview. It’s … not scientifically accurate,” she continued.
Dianne Berg and G. Nic Rider, educators in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, spearheaded the research program involving the dolls, which began within the department, Fox News reported Saturday.
The outlet cited a now-deleted 2024 summary of the project from the University of Minnesota’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health (ISGH), which stated:
“MyGender Dolls began as an idea of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health psychologist, Rachel Becker-Warner, PsyD. NCGSH Co-Director, Dianne Berg, PhD, and Communications Specialist, Ashley Finch, have been hard at work developing the dolls to be used as a therapeutic tool for transgender and gender diverse children. The concept is similar to classic paper dolls; kids can select bodies, genitals, clothes, and other accessories as a way to visualize their anatomy and genders.”
The outlet also highlighted a now-deleted article in the University of Minnesota Foundation’s magazine, in which Berg stated, “It’s really important to address the belief, ‘I’m not a ‘real’ boy because I don’t have these private parts,’ versus, ‘I am a real boy, whatever my anatomy looks like.’”
“It’s about helping children develop tools to cope with messages in society that could lead to shame,” Berg added.
University of Minnesota postdoctoral fellow Ben Parchem also said in the now-deleted article that the purpose of the dolls having swappable genitalia is to help children “realize all the different options that exist for who they can be — regardless of their body parts.”
The University of Minnesota’s ISGH presented Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz with the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Champion Award in 2023 “for his outstanding efforts in protecting sexual and reproductive health care (PRO Act, HF 1) and gender-affirming health care (Executive Order 23-03) in Minnesota,” the school’s 2023 annual report stated.
Walz has faced criticism in the past for embracing gender ideology after he approved HF 44, a bill that identified pads and tampons as examples of “menstrual products” schools would have to include in both boys’ and girls’ bathrooms.
My Gender Dolls, the University of Minnesota and the office of Gov. Tim Walz did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment. This article will be updated if a response is received.
The doll project also received criticism from Dr. Quentin Van Meter, the former president of the American College of Pediatricians, an organization that “offers evidence-based guidance on child health, family support, and pediatric medical ethics.”
Van Meter, a pediatric endocrinologist, told The College Fix that the dolls are “just a grooming tool” and “have no place in an ethical medical care world.” The doctor asserted that the science for the last 75 years supports the idea that children recognize their biological sex by the time they are 3 years old.
“They are able, by age five, to understand that boys grow up to be men, and girls grow up to be women, but until age 7 years, kids don’t really understand the immutability of the sexes: they can wrap their heads around the fact that a girl can be a tomboy but is still a girl and a boy can play female dress-up, but he remains a boy,” he said.
According to Van Meter, persuading children between the ages of 3 and 7 that they can change their sex will make them “confused” and “vulnerable to anxiety.” He argued that the basis for gender dysphoria is “emotional trauma caused by ideologues as parents or teachers or counselors.”
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