MyGender Dolls, a therapeutic tool built by the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, is designed to help gender-diverse children ages 4 to 10 express themselves in therapy sessions. After conservative outlets picked up the project, claims spread that children as young as 4 would receive the dolls directly and that Gov. Tim Walz was driving the effort — both of which don't check out.
Researchers Dianne Berg and G Nic Rider, who run the project, said all licensed professionals will undergo required training before using MyGender Dolls in therapeutic practice. No public schools currently use or plan to use them: of 19 major Twin Cities-area districts contacted, seven of eight that responded said they'd never heard of the project. Walz's office said the program is not being implemented by the state.
The project traces back to the university's Program in Human Sexuality, renamed the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health in May 2023 after Eli Coleman, the program's longtime director and the first holder of an endowed chair in sexual health at the medical school. MyGender Dolls' current phase drew a $10,000 Early Innovation Fund grant from the university in spring 2023, on top of earlier crowdfunding and a MIN-Corps innovation award the team received in November 2024.
The university trimmed the project's public web presence in late December 2024, pulling a video, crowdfunding appeals and the names of some developers amid earlier rounds of online attention. Today the project's site offers little beyond a waitlist sign-up and a note that it's "launching 2026" — no firm date has been set.