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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Now in <keyword id="19896940" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Walmart" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Walmart" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Walmart">Walmart</keyword> aisles: a <keyword id="23944922" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Skibidi-Toilet-action-figure" source="keywords">Skibidi Toilet action figure</keyword> — a $45 mystery toilet bowl.</li><li>The head of brands for toilet-maker <keyword id="23944923" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bonkers-Toys" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bonkers Toys" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Bonkers Toys">Bonkers Toys</keyword> says it's selling well.</li></ul>Recently at my local Walmart, I saw a massive display in the main aisle of the toy section: It featured a plastic toilet, about a foot tall, with a ghoulish head sticking out. For $44.95, I could be the proud owner of the <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-link--underline" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skibidi-toilet-is-good-actually-2023-10">Skibidi Toilet</a> — complete with <keyword id="23944930" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="toilet-themed-toys" source="keywords">toilet-themed toys</keyword> in the bowl. And in case you were wondering: Yes, it makes a flushing noise. If you've spent any time lately around someone who isn't old enough to drive, you've probably heard some utterance of the word "skibidi." I'll spare you the full summary of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skibidi-toilet-gen-z-alpha-memes-internet-culture-outdated-old-2023-7" target="_blank">Gen Alpha meme</a>, but the short form is: It's a YouTube series about a dystopian battle of good and evil (the toilet guys are the villains). My colleague Lindsay Dodgson <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skibidi-toilet-is-good-actually-2023-10" target="_blank">describes</a> it as "part 'Terminator,' part 'Bladerunner,' and obviously, part toilets." She says the series is actually good. What's interesting to me is that this absurd toilet meme appears to be doing a robust business in the toy aisle of your local discount store. I spoke with Dan Meyer, head of brands at Bonkers Toys, the company behind the flush. "Right away we noticed that it was exploding," Meyer said of the skibidi phenomenon online. Bonkers made a licensing deal and started pitching vendors on the toilet toy — an easy sell, he said. Bonkers started making prototypes of the toilet toy in early 2024 — and it's hit the shelves in time for the holiday season, a tight timeline. "When we're pitching it to [retailers], we had enough data to see that in middle schools and elementary schools, the term skibidi was already a thing," Meyer said. Bonkers could point to the YouTube views the Skibidi Toilet series had racked up — its channel has more than 40 million followers — or how if they searched Instagram, they'd find "hundreds and hundreds" of people dressed in homemade Skibidi Toilet costumes. Bonkers Toys, founded in 2017 in San Diego, has carved a niche for itself by licensing intellectual property from YouTube creators. Its first big toy was the giant "mystery egg" toy for Ryan's World. At the time, Ryan's World was one of the top channels on YouTube, a pioneer in the genre of "little kid opening toys." <div type="image" title="skibidi toilet toys" height="3000" width="3000" msid="115096128" hostid="261"></div>Bonkers' move into memes is in line with what retailers are trying to achieve, Blake Droesch, a senior retail analyst with BI sister company Emarketer, told me. He said big box stores like Walmart are trying to respond quickly to online trends, especially for toys. They need to move fast to compete with viral shopping on the likes of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-gen-x-boomers-love-temu-2024-1">Temu</a>. "This environment has certainly created demand for manufacturers who can produce fast and cheap products that will serve this growing market," he said. "It's no different than fast fashion, but for toys. They respond quickly to viral moments and get products on the shelves while the trend is still hot." The original Skibidi Toilet was the creation of animator Alexey Gerasimov, who made it for his YouTube channel DaFuq!?Boom!, which has 44.3 million subscribers. Gerasimov has partnered with Invisible Narratives, a companyfounded by Adam Goodman, the former president of DreamWorks SKG and Paramount Pictures who works with YouTube creators to help them make the jump to more traditional media, like movies and TV. It also helps them with licensing their brands for merchandise, like Skibidi's deal with Bonkers. Merchandising, like with the toys from Bonkers Toys, is crucial to success for these new media brands, he said. "We believe that young people don't want to pay for content anymore," Goodman told Business Insider. "Their parents pay for subscriptions, and the don't really go to movies the way that they used to — but they like buying stuff." Skibidi Toilet is certainly not the first YouTube creation to enter into consumer merchandise. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mrbeast-pitches-brands-sponsorship-deals-jimmy-donaldson-youtube-2024-10">MrBeast</a> sells chocolates and premade lunches along with Logan Paul and KSI, who make the popular drink Prime. <div type="image" title="Skibidit toilet plush toy" height="3000" width="3000" msid="115096131" hostid="261"></div>Meyer wouldn't provide numbers on how many toilets they've sold, but so far, things are looking promising, he said. He said Bonkers' launch of a LankyBox-themed product about three years ago — which was another product centered on a YouTube creator — was one of the "biggest, most successful-selling brands in the boys' action aisle" at discounters, including Walmart. He said the Skibidi Toilet was outselling LankyBox by around double. (Walmart didn't respond to requests for comment on sales numbers.) Right now, there are only a few Skibidi Toilet-theme products from Bonkers: individual action figures, mini-figures, plushes (aw, cute), and the aforementioned "mystery" toilet, which includes stickers, minifigures, and lanyards. But there will be more products for next year, Meyer said — including what every little boy and girl dreams of getting from Santa: a remote-controlled toilet bowl. Correction: November 8, 2024 — In the Skibidi Toilet YouTube series, the toilet guys are the bad guys, not the good guys.

Dear Santa: Please bring me a Skibidi Toilet for Christmas

<ul class="summary-list"><li>My two daughters, Danny and Ava, are 21 years apart in age.</li><li>I thought I would feel more confident with my second kid, but parenting has changed dramatically. </li></ul>I have two children, and they're 21 years apart in age.My first child, Danny, was born when I was 25. She is a 24-year-old <a href="https://www.instagram.com/daniella_doodles/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digital artist</a>. She's always been a deep thinker and takes in all aspects of life. My second daughter, Ava, is almost 3 years old and is a bubbly chatterbox who doesn't like to sit still. When I had her, I thought I would be far more confident, having parented before. With Danny, I was young and anxious, and I read multiple psychology and childcare books.Though the books should have helped, I instead felt worried that I would unthinkingly let Danny down. I worried she would end up troubled, distressed, or <a href="https://www.insider.com/pediatrician-shares-advice-for-parents-who-do-advanced-parenting-2023-3">having a horrible illness</a> with symptoms I might not notice. Despite my worries, Danny turned out fine.So I thought I'd be less anxious with Ava and that things this go-around would be easier. But my experience has been very different. While it's true that I might not be as anxious as before, I still feel overwhelmed at times. It feels as though most of the knowledge I gained last time just doesn't apply.<h2>I'm learning to accept that my children have their own personalities</h2>As a parent for a second time, I find myself trying to <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/parenting/authoritative-vs-authoritarian-parenting">apply the same methods</a> with Ava that I used with Danny, but they're so different. Before Ava was born, I had already envisioned color schemes for her room that Danny would have loved, but Ava prefers different colors and enjoys playing with completely different types of toys. While both children love flowers, Danny was fascinated by their details and would stare at them during long walks. Ava enjoys getting her hands (and everything else) dirty while digging in the garden. She also loves prematurely harvesting her dad's veggies. <div type="image" title="Nicci with her daughter Danny, seated at a restaurant. Danny wears a blue striped scarf wrapped around her head. She has long blonde hair and wears a black tank top. Nicci has chin-length dark hair and wears a magenta top with a graphic pattern. She has her arm on Danny. Both smile at the camera." height="540" width="720" msid="101368082" hostid="261" sizebytes="32226"></div>Danny would create elaborate events like tea parties, and Ava likes jumping, riding on toys, and scary dinosaurs. Danny chose simple clothes, but Ava loves color and sparkle. I'm learning how important it is to put my experience aside so that Ava can show me what she needs. <h2>Parenting ideas have evolved over time </h2>Modern-day parenting methods tell us to step back and create more space for freedom. A mother I follow on Instagram is <a href="https://www.insider.com/woman-was-home-schooled-is-now-home-schooling-her-children-2023-1">homeschooling</a> her children in the hills of Wales, while another parent, a friend from college, is "<a href="https://www.insider.com/mom-shares-benefits-of-unschooling-her-2-children-2022-8">unschooling</a>" her children. When I had Danny, parents were taught how to develop their children's potential using traditional schooling methods. We are known as a generation of helicopter parents.Now parenting focuses on intrinsic motivation, or giving your children the confidence, freedom, and support to discover what they love. Danny follows this mentality. As an artistic child who never really enjoyed school, she encouraged me to keep Ava away from academic pressure and let her find her own footing. Danny's insights come from her experiences, which is how every generation becomes more self-aware of their upbringing. I haven't lived her experiences, so I'm learning to shift my beliefs by listening to Danny, as well as the younger parents around me.<h2>With my 2nd child, parenting priorities and gender norms have changed </h2>It seems as though the changes that have happened within society have also shifted parenting beliefs. Culturally, we're far more open now about parenting struggles and how anxious and lonely it can feel. Researchers such as <a href="https://www.embrace.org.za/author/rumbi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rumbi Görgens from Embrace</a> continually challenge the myth that motherhood is an individual task and point out the enormous level of support that new mothers need.Parents share openly that self-doubt and anxiety are normal. In many ways, parenting has become far more holistic, with a new focus on mother and infant health. This has been positive in many ways. I feel much more aware of the importance of support, adequate nutrition, and symptoms of postnatal depression. When I had Danny, it wasn't like this at all. I remember breastfeeding in public toilets with cigarette ash on the toilet-roll holders. Now there's no smoking in public spaces, and there are even dedicated breastfeeding spaces in many public places. This time, I couldn't breastfeed exclusively because I had <a href="https://www.insider.com/my-chronic-pain-was-caused-by-lupus-2023-5">autoimmune problems</a> and struggled to make enough milk. It felt like the general message I was hearing was that "breast is best," and I felt guilty every time I needed to make Ava a bottle of formula. When I found websites and bloggers who argued that "fed is best," I appreciated their insight. It helped me dispel the guilt.After having Ava, in recent years, I've become more aware of how <a href="https://www.insider.com/tiktok-star-preschool-son-nail-salon-igniting-discussion-gender-norms-2023-2">gendered many aspects</a> of childhood are, despite many cultural changes that have become more accepting, and aware of the fluidity of gender. I have noticed how girls clothes are often covered in glitter or images of pink unicorns, while boys clothes often have animals or scientific themes. Though there are sometimes options for gender-neutral clothes, Ava would love shirts with spaceships on them, too, but there simply aren't as many available in the girls section. <div type="image" title="Nicci Attfield with her husband and their daughter Ava. Ava is a baby and sits on a log. Nicci and her husband sit behind her, holding Ava up." height="428" width="570" msid="101368084" hostid="261" sizebytes="36726"></div>I confess to shopping across manufactured divides depending on my child's choices and have even covertly moved clothes from the "boys" section to the "girls" section. I have bought dinosaur-themed trucks (and plastic dinosaurs themselves) from the boys side of the toy shop. While clothes and toys are easily swapped, I do worry about the social beliefs associated with them and how they might affect Ava as she grows up. With Danny, I was completely unaware of the importance of challenging any gender limits. (Danny, thankfully, was not unaware and has taught me a lot.) Having an <a href="https://www.insider.com/woman-runs-support-group-for-toddler-parents-shares-tips-2023-1">online community of honest mothers</a> has been a gift this time around. With the internet, I'm able to find mothers who share my worries, as well as my experiences. Being able to read about their experiences, which speak about uncertainty, fear, and guilt, has been wonderful, particularly during pandemic lockdowns, when in-person baby and toddler groups weren't up and running. While Ava has definitely been more isolated during the pandemic, I have felt less alone with my anxieties.<h2>Despite the differences, some things never change</h2>While my parenting style has changed, many things have remained the same. Both my children love listening to stories, cuddling, and spending time looking at books. Danny loved poetry, and Ava loves Gerald the giraffe and the Gruffalo. When they feel overwhelmed or hurt, holding them and telling them it's OK have soothed them. They both have appreciated it when I kiss their sore knees. Encouraging new adventures has been valuable to each child. For both my daughters, I've continued to constantly wipe up Weet-Bix before it dries and clean jam off the couch. They both love animals and enjoy spending time at the beach, with me begging them to come out of the water. Having an incredible coparent has helped me find time for myself to have a cup of tea or a long bath, which I often have needed with both children.While some elements of parenting are unique to each child, others never change.

My daughters are over 2 decades apart. I thought parenting would be easier this time, but I was wrong.

The first spam email. The first MP3. The first recorded appearance of "LOL." The AOL dial-up sound in all its staticky glory. The Hampster Dance. Friendster. All relics of a nascent, more freewheeling internet, long since buried in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-splintering-new-less-toxic-era-meta-bluesky-twitter-2023-10">digital graveyard</a>. Or were, anyway. Because you can now experience them all firsthand, thanks to one of the web's most original minds.<a href="https://neal.fun/internet-artifacts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Internet Artifacts</a> is the latest project from Neal Agarwal, the creative 25-year-old coder who launched <a href="http://neal.fun/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neal.fun</a> six years ago today. You may not recognize the name, but there's a good chance you've encountered one of Agarwal's viral creations. They include The Deep Sea, a mind-bending data visualization of the ocean's depths; Asteroid Launcher, in which you can hurtle mile-wide space rocks into your hometown; the self-explanatory Absurd Trolley Problems; and the sadistically addictive Password Game, along with a few dozen others.Agarwal's work is a joyful call to arms. He has spent his adult life infusing the web with a throwback spirit of discovery, defying preconceptions of what a website can and should be. The internet is boring. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-dead-instagram-tiktok-bereal-replaced-group-chats-messaging-2023-8">Social media is dead</a>. Being online today is doom-coded, it's gloom-pilled, it's a wasteland of algorithmically attuned sludgery. You may encounter sparks of viral fun — you'll find no <a href="https://www.insider.com/skibidi-toilet-is-good-actually-2023-10">Skibidi toilet</a> erasure here — but very little joy. It wasn't always so. The web used to be so much weirder. "I grew up at the tail end of that era of the internet," Agarwal said. "There were just a lot of independent creators making cool stuff and it was clear that they were doing it for the fun of it, not to grow a business or anything like that. And then I kind of watched that all slowly die."But within the corridors of Internet Artifacts, and through the work of Agarwal and a host of other creators dedicated to the web as a medium, you can see an urgent attempt at resurrection, echoes of an internet that was messy and unpredictable — and all the better for it. How did we wind up with today's anemic internet? The pocket version goes something like this: A couple of decades ago, give or take, easy-to-use web-design software like Adobe Flash, combined with mainstream internet availability, catalyzed a golden era of online experimentation. Animated series like Homestar Runner, nihilistic absurdities like QWOP, and single-serving meme shrines like YTMND dotted the landscape. They spread not by algorithmic ranking but by word of mouth. They had little in common beyond an antic sense of discovery and childlike play. After all, the web itself was just a kid.Over a few short years, two concurrent tectonic shifts would reshape the internet. The first is that Apple killed Flash; Steve Jobs <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170615060422/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exiled</a> it from the iPhone for being a buggy, sluggish, proprietary security risk — he wasn't wrong — which made the once-ubiquitous software a liability to work with. Suddenly building things on the web wasn't quite so simple, and eventually a lot of cherished sites no longer worked. Tools like HTML5 came along to take Flash's place, but by then it was too late. Developers increasingly built for the iPhone, prioritizing apps over browsers.The other transformation is that websites themselves became largely obsolete, displaced by platforms. First came the likes of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit; then came the image- and video-focused wave of Instagram, Snap, and TikTok. To their credit, those tech giants did democratize the act of posting. You didn't need to be a software engineer to put a photo on your timeline. With powerful mobile editing tools, the act of putting stuff online is now easier than ever. But the result is a little like giving a room full of artists the same size canvas and identical matte paints. There are only so many variations one can bring to the theme. "Now in lieu of the unique URL, you have the unique handle," Jamie Cohen, a digital culture writer and an assistant professor at CUNY-Queens, said. People once created their own distinct worlds; now they mostly shout at each other in the same rooms. "It's not the same. It's a flattening experience."Neal Agarwal rejects that looming sameness. "When I was just a kid, the internet felt like a Wild West, at least more than it is now," Agarwal said. "I would always go down these long rabbit holes. Almost all the sites I visited were by solo creators or small teams of people. It felt like much more of an independent web. As I watched all that go away, I kept feeling that this probably isn't how it should be. There should be more people creating fun stuff on the web."And so he did.Unlike some origin stories, there's no single spark that ignited Agarwal. The first website he built, Kidcrash, was itself an act of curation, putting all his favorite Flash-based games in one place. He made it in 2006. He was 9. Like a lot of precocious young coders at that time, the Fairfax, Virginia, native soon found his way to Scratch, a programming website for kids, where he went by the handle <a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/users/awesomestickdude/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">awesomestickdude</a>. His first game was a knockoff of the reality-TV competition show "Wipeout." Then 12, he offered to build a new game level for every 15 "love-its" he got from the community, not anticipating that he'd eventually receive 1,167. He bailed after level 10. In high school, Agarwal made a single mobile app, a game called Toast Man, before pivoting back to the web. He set up shop with a site called Kamogo, where he hosted projects with the same inventiveness and absurdist energy — albeit less polish, and often not much of a point — that would later animate neal.fun. Much of it still holds up. There's a <a href="https://www.kamogo.com/5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Silicon Valley Idea Generator</a>, a tool for <a href="https://www.kamogo.com/30" target="_blank" rel="noopener">making vertical videos horizontal</a>, and a "<a href="https://www.kamogo.com/13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Text to Hodor</a>" translator that turns whatever you type into, well, "hodor." In 2016, Agarwal got his first glimpse of mainstream success when Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-apple-makes-every-second-2016-8">wrote up</a> <a href="https://everysecond.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">everysecond.io</a>, an early data visualization. But it wasn't until he was enrolled at Virginia Tech that Agarwal committed himself more fully to making his so-called web toys."Programming for me was always a creative expression," he said. "It's like creative writing. I program because I want to have the ideas in my head become a reality." Formal computer-science studies felt like the exact opposite. When professors required students to use certain programming languages, Agarwal would often go his own way regardless — nearly failing a few assignments in the process.But the abject boredom Agarwal felt during lectures had a silver lining: the creation of neal.fun, which he worked on while he should have been taking notes. One of his first entries, <a href="https://neal.fun/spend/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spend Bill Gates' Money</a>, remains his most popular, with over 80 million page views since it launched in 2017. It took three days to make.By the time he graduated, Agarwal was making something like a full-time living off ads on neal.fun. He gave himself a year to see if it could actually become a career. Two breakout visualizations — <a href="https://neal.fun/deep-sea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Deep Sea</a> and <a href="https://neal.fun/size-of-space/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Size of Space</a> — suggested that it could, largely because he licensed the former to Ripley's Aquarium. After a detour working at MSCHF, a collective known for large-scale pranks and subversive art projects, Agarwal decided to go it alone for good."He is very, very impressive," said Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle (which he sold to The New York Times for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-times-buys-wordle-online-word-game-2022-1#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20Times%20has%20purchased%20the%20hit%20online%20word,in%20the%20low%20seven%20figures.%22">more than $1 million</a> last year), and who overlapped with Agarwal at MSCHF. "There is a joy to his work, and a levity, which I think reflects how Neal sees the world."Virality has seemingly come easy in the years since, including most recently with Password Game, which has amassed over 10 million page views since it launched in June. It's wholly original but also quintessentially neal.fun, taking a mundane part of internet life — password policies — to an inconceivable extreme. The creative process varies from project to project. Password Game started as a germ of an idea five years ago but took a few weeks to build once he got going. Internet Artifacts has taken closer to three months. He does his own research but has been increasingly open to soliciting outside feedback before going live; he estimates 20 people have given input on his internet museum. Internet Artifacts takes several touchstones of the anteplatformian internet and places them on literal digital pedestals. Homestar Runner makes the cut, as does Zombo, a joke web page that was once <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jan/20/mondaymediasection8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anointed</a> "the least useful website." Agarwal has lovingly recreated his references, down to a faithfully emulated Internet Explorer browser window for entries on the original MySpace and Wikipedia pages, and a Napster simulation that lets you download real MP3s. The exhibit unfolds chronologically, starting with a 1977 map of ARPANET, the government-funded precursor to the modern internet, and making dozens of stops across the next three decades.The most surprising thing about Agarwal's undertaking may be that there's nothing really like it out there. (The closest thing may be Brandon Chilcutt's indispensable <a href="http://savethesounds.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Museum of Endangered Sounds</a>, which focuses on aural artifacts both on and offline: the whirring clicks of a rotary phone, a Tamagotchi's plaintive bloops.) "There's a value to having somewhere on the internet, something that says, 'This was important to a lot of people. This existed. It mattered,'" said Jessa Lingel, the author of "The Gentrification of the Internet" and an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "It really shouldn't just be internet studies scholars who do that."As delightful as Internet Artifacts is to click through, it also provides valuable context for Agarwal's larger ambition. Think of <a href="https://neal.fun/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neal.fun</a> as a splintered reality, an alternate dimension where the web never stopped being weird. Agarwal is hardly the only person making fun things online. He meets regularly with a group of six kindred spirits in New York to compare notes and test out ideas. You can find complementary energy in the work of <a href="https://nicole.pizza/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nicole He</a>, <a href="https://matthewrayfield.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matthew Rayfield,</a> and <a href="https://brianmoore.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Moore</a>. <a href="https://www.immaculategrid.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Immaculate Grid</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wordle</a> (along with its infinite imitators) provide a daily fix outside the confines of the major platforms. <a href="https://theuselessweb.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Useless Web</a> curates a dazzling selection of silliness. Even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMkbjxvwur30YrFWw8kpSaw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Homestar Runner</a> has mounted a comeback, in the form of occasional YouTube videos.But it's the variety of Agarwal's work, and his dedication to the web as a medium for artistic expression, that stands out. "As the internet develops, there's a bunch of things that tech companies want to do around apps and push notifications. Neal had this focus on not doing any of that," Wardle said of their time as coworkers. "It made me excited about the web."As for what's next, Agarwal has maintained a list of potential experiments, sorted by a five-star rating system that helps him prioritize his road map, since he was 18. The list now numbers somewhere around 1,300. He still adds one or two each day. "At this point, even if I don't think of any more ideas, I have enough things to work on probably for the rest of my life," he said.Internet Artifacts goes up to 2007. The last entry is a video of Steve Jobs announcing the iPhone at that year's MacWorld conference, played in an emulated QuickTime window. It's a fitting capstone for a certain era of the web, one that was open and weird and absurd. You're left with a sense of nostalgia, but also loss. There's probably no going back to the web that was. Apps and platforms have fragmented but still dominate and will continue to lure this generation of creatives with the promise of monetization. But Agarwal's work suggests if not a return to the old ways then at least an alternate path forward. The web can be fun. It can be silly. It can be joyful. It can be anything you want. And isn't that the point? An infinite canvas, forever in search of an artist.Brian Barrett is the former executive editor of Wired and author of The Art of the Minifigure. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, New York, and numerous other publications.

Can anyone save the internet? Neal Agarwal is trying, one Hampster Dance at a time.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A dollhouse is a classic childhood toy for boys and girls alike to play, imagine, and learn.</li><li>Before choosing a dollhouse, think about what is important to you and your child. We spoke to toy expert and senior editor at Toys, Tots, Pets &amp; More to find out what makes a dollhouse great.</li><li>Our pick for the best dollhouse overall is the <a href="https://amzn.to/2VRHGM8" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener nofollow">KidKraft Majestic Mansion</a>, a sprawling four-story dollhouse complete with 34 accessories and an elevator. The play opportunities with this one are truly endless.</li></ul>A dollhouse is one of those quintessential toys of childhood that almost everyone has fond memories playing with. I can still picture my childhood dollhouse and remember it as one of my favorite toys. Not only are dollhouses fun to play with, but they're excellent tools for parents to model positive behavior, teach conflict resolution, help children express their emotions, and connect with their kids through play.As an open-ended toy, the play scenarios with dollhouses are endless as children invent realistic and imaginary scenes. Dollhouses are even popular tools child psychologists use during <a href="https://www.kathyeugster.com/articles/article003.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">play therapy</a>.<h2>What to look for in a dollhouse</h2>Before choosing a dollhouse, think about what is important to you and your child: size, number of accessories, portability, and theme, for example. We spoke to toy expert and senior editor at Toys, Tots, Pets &amp; More (TTPM), <a href="https://ttpm.com/profile/laurie-leahey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laurie Leahey</a>, about what makes a dollhouse great."Kids want something with lots of space for them to play with their dolls and something that comes with a lot of accessories so that the dollhouse feels furnished, and kids have everything they need to start playing," Leahey said.She also talked about the aspirational aspect of a dollhouse. Things like elevators, winding staircases, or sprawling mansions are fun for kids because they're different from what we see every day. At the same time, she said, "It's always nice to have something realistic in the dollhouse, whether that's a toilet accessory that makes a flushing sound, working lights, etc. These are things that kids are familiar with, and they want their dollhouse to have functionality just like their real house."Of course, assembly is almost always required with dollhouses, so that's something parents need to take into consideration when choosing a dollhouse.<h2>A word about our picks</h2>You'll notice that several of our picks are KidKraft dollhouses because time and time again, they won over the competition. KidKraft houses consistently check all the boxes of a great dollhouse: They're large enough to give kids room to play, they include aspirational aspects while still remaining functional, they come with fun accessories, and they're built to last.From huge dollhouse mansions to starter dollhouses for toddlers, we combed through the options and relied on expert advice to compile this guide to the best dollhouses. <h2>Here are the best dollhouses you can buy:</h2><ul class="summary-list"><li>Best dollhouse overall: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042F99PG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=biipgf_101819_best-dollhouses-20&amp;linkId=3cf72a0cf416c3c4d11f84b19d974b00&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">KidKraft Majestic Mansion</a></li><li>Best budget-friendly dollhouse: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Dollhouse-Furniture/dp/B001P9OGRS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=biipgf_101819_best-dollhouses-20&amp;linkId=47c560cfa288f0a40c017568cd17fef6&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow noopener nofollow">Melissa &amp; Doug Fold &amp; Go Mini Dollhouse</a></li><li>Best gender-neutral dollhouse: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005QZLBXO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?psc=1&amp;pd_rd_i=B005QZLBXO&amp;pd_rd_w=UyX2k&amp;pf_rd_p=c83c55b0-5d97-454a-a592-a891098a9709&amp;pd_rd_wg=t2KsM&amp;pf_rd_r=V6Z25KAJB271E86CTH3A&amp;pd_rd_r=460f118a-eaad-42cb-8e9b-9517f73c285d&amp;spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExUDFPRVRZNlJMU1BWJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzc5OTczMTlJVTg0N1RDSUtGRCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTk3MjE5OTMwTElSSUhYN1pRJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsX3RoZW1hdGljJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=biipgf_101819_best-dollhouses-20&amp;linkId=888307651e8a69c53a2ec07d9bfe8b2e&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow noopener nofollow">Hape All Season House</a></li><li>Best toddler dollhouse: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Little-People-Helpers-Home/dp/B07CT7WP7F/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=biipgf_101819_best-dollhouses-20&amp;linkId=d55a5b32848d354684702d349ddc1eb3&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener nofollow">Fisher-Price Little People Big Helpers Home</a></li><li>Best Disney dollhouse: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/KidKraft-Princess-Cinderella-Dollhouse-Exclusive/dp/B0172FY3R6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=biipgf_101819_best-dollhouses-20&amp;linkId=292d153f890bcc509675779e84fef30c&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener nofollow">KidKraft Disney Princess Cinderella Royal Dreams Dollhouse</a></li></ul><a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/ci/insider-picks">Subscribe to our newsletter.</a> Find all the best offers at our <a href="https://coupons.businessinsider.com/">Coupons page</a>. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks">Insider Picks</a> team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.

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