Wrote by Tristane on Thursday, December 6th 2007 at 3:57 pm

…such lovely little dolls!
21st November was the Atelier Frimousse (Dolls’ workshop) in Disneyland.

These dolls, called Frimousses (which means “sweet little face” in French), are unique rag dolls, each one with its very own identity card. They are sold for a minimum of 20 euros (donors can offer as much as they like) and the money goes to UNICEF.
The money is then transformed into vaccinations against fatal illnesses (tetanus, measles, diphtheria, polio, tuberculosis, whooping cough) in third world countries.

On this day, Disneyland, which also let Cast members make a Frimousse doll for UNICEF, decided to help several groups of children make their own Frimousse doll!
Children of the Secours Populaire association, in addition to doing a good deed, had a wonderful day, finishing with a visit of the park and the famous Disney Once Upon a Dream Parade!

Curious as I am, I followed the first group of children! 

When they arrived, they went to eat…They needed energy!
They were received in Toad Hall, in Fantasyland, by several Disney VoluntEARS and Wendy, the Disneyland Paris ambassador.
They were then divided into four workshops: identity card, hair and
headgear, clothes, and face. Four workshops for the four steps in
making a Frimousse!

In the first workshop, each child gave their doll an identity: name,
place of birth, age, size, hair and eye colour, etc. And of course, the
famous “distinguishing features”! 
Some children had their doll born in Disneyland - logical! Others chose
to have dolls that looked like themselves, like little avatars…I saw
dolls born in Mexico, because dad was from Mexico, others born in
Madrid, and still others in Paris, and so on.
In terms of age, it ranged from 1 to 18 years….Never any older! Just
goes to show that in the eyes of a child, a doll is not of legal age,
or only just!

There was a big difference in terms of size too. I saw it all, from 2 cm to….2 metres!

In terms of distinguishing features, the children were particularly
inventive: some decided that their doll was a trapeze artist, others
that it had a tattoo on the right shoulder (why the right? Well why not
after all?), others that it was a gymnast, etc. Real research work!

In the hair workshop, I saw it all too: blond, brown or black hair made
of wool, with or without streaks, with a hat, with plaits, straight,
and even dreadlocks !

As for clothes, a large part of the work was already done for them, and
that’s how it should be…I had difficulty seeing the children struggling
with a needle and thread!
They had a choice: skirt or dress for girls, shirt and trousers for
boys…And of course, a choice of style: summer, winter, evening dress,
etc.

Lastly, in the face workshop, there were those who made dolls that
looked like themselves, and those that used their cousin, brother or
best friend as a model. Who gets the big mouth, who gets the small one,
who gets blue eyes? Dimitri called his doll Valentin, which is the name
of his best friend, and of course, his doll is the spitting image of
the real Valentin! With a bit of imagination, naturally

One thing is sure: the children applied a great deal of care and
generosity in making these dolls. Little Cathy even said to me: “It’s
not good that there are poor children! But with the dolls, if they have
nightmares, they’ll have a toy!”

I would have bought them all if I could!
But let’s calm down, I’ve already got Snow White’s dress in my
cupboard, we can’t have it all ;-). So, to make up for it, here is my
very own Frimousse doll, made by me! But, although I’ve got loads of
ideas for its appearance, personality and all the rest, I’m stuck for a
first name. Any ideas ??