Star & Your Own Place

Star is a soft toy that brings people warmth and support, and tell kids what to do when they face sexual abuse.

Yayuan Zheng

https://wp.nyu.edu/joycezheng/2020/04/27/week-11-toy-design-prototyping-assignment/

Description

Star is a soft, bright yellow, a human-like star with a red heart. Star’s red soft heart can be opened, with a 3D-printed hard heart into it. Star also has a small, delicate small room, with a pillow, quilts, a book, a phone, a wood knife in it. So far she has two sets of clothes, one is a loose comfortable T-shirt and another is a sexy camisole & skirt. Players can choose to make beddings/clothes/scarves for Star by themselves. The big idea of my project is to create something for people, especially females that can make them feel warm, support, and independence. After communicating with Marcela, I also added some accessories about how to save yourself from sexual abuse to tell people how to protect themselves, so the toy is a combination of two parts. The ‘Empathy’ in the project first refers to the share feelings of warmth, support, independence, second refers to the knowledge share of reactions against sexual abuse. This concept comes from Li Xingxing, a 14-year-old girl who suffers from sexual abuse. The overall sense of purpose is to help people to live a better life, gaining mental strength and relief from the stuffed toy. After adding the accessories, there is also an educational purpose. Generally, the players can sleep with Star if they want, and they can place Star in its room when needed, they can also DIY clothes/accessories for Star if they want.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.238.1
Toy Design and Prototyping
Play/Games