Crayola introduces Colors of the World Crayons representing global skin tones

On May 21, UN World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, Crayola launched Colors of the World Crayons, 24 new specially-formulated crayons designed to represent over 40 skin tones from around the world.

“With the world growing more diverse than ever before, Crayola hopes our new Colors of the World crayons will increase representation and foster a greater sense of belonging and acceptance,” says Rich Wuerthele, CEO of Crayola. “We want the new Colors of the World crayons to advance inclusion within creativity and impact how kids express themselves.”

Already known as the brand that sparks imagination through color, Crayola believes that every child should be able to color themselves accurately into the world they see around them. With the Colors of the World Crayons, Crayola hopes to encourage an even more inclusive society for children of all ages, races, cultures, and ethnicities.

“The opportunity for Colors of the World to bring forth more diversity and more appreciation for that diversity is quite significant,” says Margenett Moore-Roberts, chief inclusion & diversity officer for Golin, a Crayola partner.

To ensure the new crayons would reflect an accurate and inclusive skin tone palette, Crayola partnered with Victor Casale. The former chief chemist and managing director of Research & Development (R&D) for MAC cosmetics, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Cover FX, and currently CEO of MOB Beauty has over 30 years of experience creating make-up foundation colors for global skin tones.

“Growing up, I remember mixing the pink and dark brown crayons to try and make my shade, so I was thrilled when Crayola asked for my help to create the Colors of the World Crayons,” said Casale. “Finding someone’s right shade has been a goal of mine for my whole career. Now, people can identify themselves in a box of 24 crayons. This is going to change things.”

The collaboration between Casale and Crayola’s R&D and marketing teams was modeled after his scientific process for developing inclusive foundation shades. Together, they created crayon colors that range from light to deep shades with rose, almond, and golden undertones, resulting in a 24 global shade palette that reflects the diverse spectrum of complexions. Each crayon also has a realistic color name, including Very Light Rose, Medium Golden, and Deepest Almond – all intentionally designed to help kids find the shade they can identify as their own.

The crayon packs feature side panels that serve as color references, and color names are printed in English, Spanish, and French. 24- and 32-crayon packs of Crayola Colors of the World Crayons will begin hitting store shelves in July.

The 32-count pack—the 24 new skin colors plus four hair colors and four eye colors—will be sold exclusively at Walmart and is available for pre-order via Walmart.com. Customers can request to be notified when the 24-count pack is available for purchase by submitting their email on Crayola.com.