Taxpayer-Funded Medical School Develops Transgender Doll Project For Kids As Young As 4

“First-of-their-kind” transgender-identified paper dolls featuring removable genitalia are expected to be introduced in the fall in some Minnesota classrooms for children as young as four years old, according to the University of Minnesota researchers who developed the project.

The dolls, which have gender-neutral names including “Sam,” “Rory,” “Avery,” and “Parker,” include removable internal and external genitalia and more than 100 interchangeable clothing, hairstyle, and accessory pieces designed to facilitate conversations about gender and anatomy.

The project originated at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health after more than six years of research, the New York Post reported. It has since been spun into a commercial venture, MyGender Dolls. The university’s research reportedly included sessions in which transgender-identifying and other children, along with their parents, were paid between $20 and $60 to play with the dolls and discuss gender and anatomy. In addition, photographs presented during a 2024 conference reportedly showed prototype dolls depicting various stages of gender transition, including removable anatomy and interchangeable clothing.

The venture was founded by Drs. Dianne Berg and Nic Rider, both licensed therapists and faculty members at the university. Rider’s university biography references they/them pronouns and a specialization in transgender health for children and adolescents.

The dolls are intended to help children “learn about the different options that exist for who they can be,” Berg told the New York Post.

Berg reportedly wrote in a since-deleted 2020 article that the dolls were designed to help children understand that “there’s diversity in gender identity” and described using them with patients between the ages of five and ten.

Other university clinicians involved with the project said the dolls help facilitate discussions about children’s bodies and future physical development.

“They will find anybody who’s in trouble and use this as a tool to say, ‘this is why you’re unhappy,'” Dr. Quentin Van Meter, a past president of the American College of Pediatricians, told the New York Post. “The younger kids … are well beyond their ability to sort out fantasy from reality.”

The dolls are expected to be made available to teachers, school counselors, pediatricians, and mental health professionals. It remains unclear whether they will also be sold directly to parents or if schools will offer families an opportunity to opt out.

The University of Minnesota Medical School receives approximately $15 million annually in state funding appropriated to expand research capacity. University officials, however, told the New York Post that no public money was used to commercialize MyGender Dolls.

The institute’s total research budget is approximately $1.4 billion, according to its 2025 annual report.

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has supported several transgender-related policies during his administration, received the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health’s inaugural Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Champion Award in 2023. The governor’s office reportedly did not respond to the New York Post’s request for comment.

University officials maintain that taxpayer dollars were not used to commercialize the dolls, though they have not disclosed how much public funding supported the underlying research.