WASHINGTON — A slip of the scissors and off comes a foot. A nick and there goes a finger. A wrong snip and a tab that would have held up her dress disappears. Paper dolls, fragile though they were, ...

I remember making paper dolls from Sears catalogs. When a new Sears catalog arrived at our home, the old one was set aside, available for play. My sister and I would pour through it, looking for just ...

The year was 1959 in Vigo County. An 8-year-old girl bounds excitedly toward the front door. The postman had just delivered the McCall’s magazine and she couldn’t wait to cut out the paper dolls ...

Paper dolls, a vital part of children’s lives and fashion culture for generations, have always been meant to be instructive: to teach young women and girls how to look and behave. But, from the start, ...