In the "doll experiment" from the 1940s, husband-and-wife psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark asked black children to tell them which doll—a white one or a black one—they thought looked most like them, and which was good and which was bad. They found that black children identified with and preferred white dolls to black ones. They concluded this was proof of internalized racism. Their research later became cornerstone evidence in the landmark Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision of Topeka, Kansas, which ended American school segregation.

In 2005, 18-year-old filmmaker Kiri Davis recreated the Clarks' experiment with 21 young black children at a daycare center in New York. In her seven-minute documentary, A Girl Like Me, Kiri presented the children with two dolls—a black one and a white one. Then, like in the original experiment, Kiri asked which they would rather play with and which they thought was "nice" and which was "bad."

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As in the original test, Kiri found that most of the black children preferred the white dolls and identified the black dolls as "bad." "I think those attitudes that existed 50 years ago are still here. They're not highlighted, and they're kind of on the down low, but they still exist," Kiri says. "These children, even though they're 4 and 5 years old, they're kind of like a mirror and they show exactly what they've been exposed to by society."

Kiri says she hoped the documentary would highlight for people how subtle messages—like those in the media and through product marketing—affect children. "I thought you could tell people all you want about how certain standards are affecting self-esteem and self-image, but [when] you show them, that's when they'll get it," Kiri says. "That's what I thought the doll test might do."

Even still, Kiri says she was surprised by the reaction A Girl Like Me provoked. It won an award from the Media That Matters film festival and was featured on news reports around the world. The documentary is available on the Internet and has been used to spark classroom discussions. "I thought maybe the doll test might hit some nerve in America, but I didn't think to that extent," she says.

Kiri decided to replicate the doll experiment because of issues of intraracist beauty that she and her friends faced. In the black community, those who have more European features are put on pedestals she says. Kiri also says people with straighter hair or lighter skin are often considered beautiful, while those with more African features are considered not beautiful. "[The documentary] was a way to kind of put [our feelings] out there so it didn't seem so taboo or uncomfortable to talk about, so people couldn't just push it under the table."

Ursula, Kiri's mother, says her daughter's documentary accurately illustrates how society and media's narrow concept of beauty affects the self-esteem of children. "The imagery is so very powerful and kids see these images time and time again, and they internalize them," she says. "The message that comes from these negative images and stereotypes, it really says, 'We don't value you.' It hits the core of who you are and your self-esteem and self-worth."

Kiri says overturning these skewed ideas of beauty is everyone's responsibility. We each have to begin by "not letting others define you, and … celebrating your soul and creating that foundation."

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