No more green, red or blue people. Crayola is launching a box of crayons with different skin tones for children to “accurately color themselves into the world”.
What We Know:
- “Colors of the World” crayons, the company said in a statement, includes 24 new crayons designed to mirror and represent over 40 different skin tones.
- “With the world growing more diverse than ever before, Crayola hopes our new Colors of the World crayons will increase representation and foster a greater sense of belonging and acceptance,” said Crayola CEO Rich Wuerthele in the statement. “We want the new Colors of the World crayons to advance inclusion within creativity and impact how kids express themselves.”
- The crayons themselves will be wrapped in a gradient skin tone label with the color name in English, Spanish and French, and a realistic color name – such as Light Golden, Deep Almond and Medium Deep Rose.
- In partnership with CEO of MOB Beauty Victor Casale, the shades were carefully crafted to go from extra light to deepest while incorporating rose, almond and golden undertones.
- To successfully create an accurate and inclusive skin-tone palette, Crayola not only conducted rigorous consumer testing on real people and worked with Casale to bring everything together starting with the highest and darkest hues first.
- “Throughout my career, I have systematically created shades that step down from light to deep by 4% to create a shade palette that captures all shades,” explained Casale. “I also have stepped the shades to have a pink, neutral and golden undertone to take into account the many varying ethnic skin tones. The shades are very precise, and differences can only be seen when applied to the face and compared to your own skin and not easily noticed on white paper when compared to each other.”
The new Crayola “Colors of the World” crayons will be available in July in a 24 and 32-count pack. The 32-count crayon pack, will be sold exclusively at Walmart. Crayola made the announcement on Wednesday to coincide with the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
