By GREGORY ZELLER //
An innovative Rockville Centre play and party space is making dreams come true, starting with the owner’s.
Representing an entirely new retail species on Long Island – the hands-on “play café” for kids – Little Doll Studio is a doll-lover’s paradise (or full-on nightmare for sufferers of pediophobia, but let’s not go there).
With nary an Annabelle or Chucky in sight, the studio was designed to build kids’ confidence through unstructured, creative, developmental doll play – a no-screens, all-imagination throwback leveraging toys that predate written human history.
Well, dolls do, but the action figures and other plastic pals found in Little Doll Studio are slightly more contemporary than ancient Japan’s clay Kokeshi figurines.
Not only are major characters ready for action (everyone from “Barbie” to “The Mandalorian”), but so are differently abled characters equipped with wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and hearing aids – even a pregnant doll with a tiny doll baby in her belly.
Family fun: Entrepreneur Frances Cuomo Perpero (bottom right) drew inspiration from her daughter Sophia, son Michael (top left) and husband Frank.
Diversity is the name of the game, according to Little Doll Studio founder Frances Cuomo Perpero, who had a long list of ideas and ideals when she launched her alley of the dolls in 2022.
Right at the top: An “inclusive playroom,” the entrepreneur noted.
“We’ve put together a diverse collection of dolls with a variety of skin tones, shapes and sizes, and with different abilities,” Perpero told Innovate Long Island. “It’s important for children to see diversity in their dolls and toys.
“A child’s self-worth and confidence are further developed when they see someone who looks like them,” Perpero added. “And the wider range of dolls lends itself to more storylines and scenarios.”
To that end, Little Doll Studio boasts more than 75 dolls dressed for success as astronauts, teachers, chefs and more, along with detailed playsets depicting schools, laboratories, doctor’s offices and even a Starbucks coffeehouse.
With professional athletes and macho warriors from the “Star Wars” and Marvel universes mixing in, Little Doll Studio is anything but a girls-only club. In fact, “about 15 percent of our guests are boys,” according to Perpero – and while they’re “usually tagging along with their sisters,” it doesn’t take long until they get into the playroom spirit.
This is the way: Famous faces (and masks) abound inside Little Doll Studio.
“At first glance, they assume they’ll be bored, but we ease them into the experience with familiar characters like Captain America and Harry Potter,” she noted. “Within minutes, everyone is playing with all the dolls and all the scenes.
“My son loved playing with Power Ranger and Pokémon figures,” Perpero added. “And who doesn’t love playing with ‘Star Wars’ figures?
“A doll is just a representation, and the kids can choose who they want to be at that moment.”
The mother of two, who traces her love of doll-play to youthful days in the 1970s spent with Malibu Barbie and friends, calls it “fearless” recreation – and considers it key to unlocking both creativity and confidence in children.
“Dolls are one of the oldest and most beloved toys in history,” she said. “The social and emotional benefits of creative, unstructured doll play is integral for child development in an on-demand digital age.”
The entrepreneur insists she is not anti-digital – in fact, she’s “the biggest proponent of technology.”
“My entire career was based on leveraging and utilizing the latest advancements in technology in commerce and education,” Perpero noted.
But nothing can beat the power of imagination – and “encouraging children to create their own little imaginary worlds gives them a vehicle to pretend to be anything,” according to the entrepreneur.
All wand up: Doll play excites kids while sharpening social skills, according to Perpero.
“It brings the large world into a manageable size,” she said. “Children can reshape it and have some control over it.”
Such fantastical worldbuilding – “It’s not uncommon to see LeBron James sitting in the Starbucks … with Mirabelle from ‘Encanto,’ sharing a Strawberry Acai Refresher,” Perpero noted – also requires children to think about interpersonal interactions, which helps develop emotional intelligence and social skills like empathy, along with language skills and concepts like teamwork.
While bringing her lifelong love of dolls full-circle, Perpero – a former marketing and communications director at Garden City’s Cradle of Aviation Museum – also brings a quarter-century of corporate and nonprofit marketing experience to bear.
To that end, she’s added plenty of grown-up bells and whistles to her first-ever startup, including a full coffee bar and a Parents Night Out event featuring open play for the kids, bingo (with prizes) for mom and dad and pizza for all.
Among other attractions, Little Doll Studio also packs in an “on location” video-recording set complete with greenscreen technology – ideal for television newscasts covering the opening of the new “Barbie” movie, or auteurs who want to make their own action figure flick – and a doll-styling boutique.
Although it actually opened late last year, Little Doll Studio is planning a ribbon-cutting event for July 19 – and with writer/director Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” heading to the big screen that same week, Perpero is looking forward to an exciting summer ahead.
“I am not aware of any children’s entertainment business/play café on Long Island, in New York or in the country that focuses exclusively on doll play,” she said. “We are so excited to provide a play space where kids can create their own scenarios and dream fearlessly.”
