Your Brotha is Playing with LOL Dolls!

Stephen SUmner becomes an Honorary Member of The Black Doll Affair and accepts the role of joining Mama Doll's AmBOSSadoll Team as Deputy of Doll Affairs. Also, we're proud to announce that Stephen has accepted the position of Senior Doll Designer at MGA Entertainment, the doll company that produces the LOL doll brand!

"As a designer and philanthropist, what a jaw-dropping journey Stephen has enjoyed. He's sprinkled his magic on companies such as Hasbro, Marvel, Mattel, SpinMaster, The Black Doll Affair and now, MGA! Impressive! As Deputy of Doll Affairs, Stephen will help me curate Black Doll Experiences - those involving the living ones and the toy ones. I'm thoroughly stoked and remain honored to continue to call him friend and family! Congrats, to our Black Doll Brotha! Mama Doll

Click here to watch Stephen's Announcement.

“I am blessed that my gift is also my hobby and my livelihood. Creativity has allowed me to travel the world for work and it’s allowed me to help ‘raise’ several generations of children to see the infinite possibilities available to them. Joining The Black Doll Affair has been a shining light in my life because over the past five years, I have come to think of the attendees as my honorary nieces and nephews, while our Founder Mama Doll, and the Black Dolls, Ambassadolls and Ambossadolls are the sisters I never had growing up!”

A doll designer, toy collector, Christian, and a Secular humanist, Stephen has been designing clothes since he was five. He sang in church choir & school choirs from 9-17. Played piano, string bass from 9-17. Worked @ every major toy company except Lego.

A toy designer for almost 30 years, Stephen holds a BFA degree in Fashion Illustration from Parsons School of Design, NYC and a BFA degree in Toy Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), NYC. Stephen is a ﬁrst generation American of Sierra Leonean descent who has worked for Mattel, Hasbro, Marvel Comics, JAKKS Pacific, and Spin Master. He’s currently employed at MGA Entertainment in Los Angeles, CA. He has been a member of several community outreach organizations that promote gender and racial diversity- like the Black Doll Affair (which he joined in 2015). Stephen has also worked with community organizations like AS220 to encourage youths to pursue careers in the arts.

In addition to designing the Barbie I Can Be Careers playsets sold from 2008- 2014 and the So In Style by Barbie assortments sold from Fall 2012-2014, Stephen’s products were featured on the “Barbie Top 20 Weekly Sales List” every week for 5 1/2 years. As a side project, Stephen also created the preliminary concept, branding and character designs for what eventually became Mattel’s $400+ Million ‘Ever After High’ doll franchise in 2011.

While at Mattel, Stephen designed and executed various celebrity One of A Kind Barbie dolls for charity, including the One of A Kind Nicki Minaj Barbie doll for Project Angelfood (2011), and the One of A Kind National Velvet Elizabeth Taylor Barbie doll for the Los Angeles charity, Children Affected By Aids in 2010.

Stephen has been featured in People Magazine twice for his work on the Charlie’s Angels Movie dolls in 2001 and for the Nicki Minaj One Of A Kind doll in 2011.

Congrats, Stephen!

The Black Doll Affair

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