The Doc McStuffins Effect: How brown little girls now believe… #DocMobile

Don’t get it twisted — every little girl out there does NOT want to TWERK. It’s NOT cute and Miley Cyrus formerly known as Hannah Montana is no longer a role model that our kids want to emulate. And to think, adding insult to injury Rapper Juicy J, a black man, is giving out a 50,000 scholarship to any woman who twerks and it’s is a real shame! It’s bad enough many of those females he’s appealing to don’t have a dad or a good male role model in the home. And there he goes asking these women to humliate and demean themselves by flapping their butt cheeks together for a check.

How about giving that money to a woman who demonstrates GOOD qualities, is a role model and uses her brain instead of her booty to get a boost in life. The bottom line is that our daughters need role models. They need to SEE it in order to want to BE it!

And on this past Saturday it warmed my heart to see a rainbow coalition of kids pour into Centennial Park to see a group of female doctors, women of color, wearing white coats and stethoscopes and proving that their brain power prevailed! SEE FULL STORY HERE

Disney brought the 10-city Doc McStuffins Mobile Tour to Atlanta where kids learned about healthy habits and got to check out their stuffed animals just like a real doctor does. On site were about 30 accomplished female doctors from the Artemis Medical Society, which was formed after the launch of Doc McStuffins and the positive response the cartoon generated from the black community. The female doctors realized that art was imitating life and that they were in fact once mini-McStuffins who dreamed to one day work as a real doctor and help to heal their community. 

And Saturday so many more mini-McStuffins showed up with their doctor’s bag in hand, holding fast to dreams that they too can one day become a doctor. This time the reality was that there were women doctors present who they could identify with. Women who looked like their mom or aunts or grandmoms or big sisters. I’ll never forget how my own daughter Milan with her doctor’s coat, and sparkly headband on, responded when she saw all the female doctors. She said, “Are they doctors?” I said, “Yes.” And then she said again in almost disbelief, “All of them?”

It’s unbelievable to a child because seeing black female doctors is a rarity. Seeing black positive role models on TV is still rare too. If black females aren’t trying to scratch each other’s eyes out on a reality show or shown being the mistress or shaking their groove on a video, then there’s not much to for our kids to admire or aspire to be.

So to see all the women of color female doctors together in one place really was mind-blowing for Milan. And since that visit to the Doc Mobile Bus at Centennial Park, Milan has transformed into a mini-Doc McStuffins. She wears her white coat every chance she can; even over her pajamas and she walks around the house asking everyone if they are OK or need a checkup.

Let me tell you, I’ve been seen by Dr. Milan so many times. Milan checked my ankle several times. (She knows I have real-life issues with it.) And Milan even set up a table outside our home and invited all the neighborhood kids over to get a checkup too.

This is definitely what I call the Doc McStuffins Effect – where a powerful event like the Doc Mobile Bus Tour left such an indelible impression that little girls all over the country like Milan are acting out their dream and desire to be a doctor because they BELIEVE they will be. To me this is not just about pretending. These little girls and boys BELIEVE that they will actually be doctors. It’s been ingrained in their brain and they have seen real images that they hold dear to their hearts and they have the confidence and confirmation that being a doctor is an ATTAINABLE dream and a reality that will manifest one day. They’ve seen the proof and now it’s up to parents to see them through. Even if they don’t become doctors they have new-found confidence to be somebody great and pursue professional careers. That’s what kids need to hear and see. Not demonstrations of booty-shaking as if their body is a public playground to be used and abused and treated like trash. Our daughters are princesses. And I refer to my daughters as “princess,” because that word is empowering. (And if you’ve ever been to a Disney Park you know that every little girl is called a princess by the cast members.)

I am grateful that Disney stays ahead of the curve and embraces diversity and differences and always work to uplift kids and families and impart them with experiences and memories that last a lifetime. Doc McStuffins is more than a cartoon, it’s a movement. I believe that we’ll see the Doc McStuffins Effect produce tons of kids going into the medical profession YEARS from now. At least I know that I’m giving my little Milan all the educational tools she’ll need to make her dreams and what her heart desires comes true.