Lammily is a doll with minimal make-up, brown hair and proportions that are typical of an average American 19-year-old girl. But she's not yet a real toy.

Last year, American illustrator Nickolay Lamm, 25, got us all talking about his artist impression of what Barbie would look like if she had the body of a real woman. Now in a bid to turn his idea into a reality he has taken to crowd-funding website Kickstarter to raise £56,900 ($95,000) to create a natural-looking doll called Lammily.

If Barbie was a real person she would have an 18" waist, 33" hips and a 36" bust, which is anatomically impossible. In fact, a human Barbie's neck could not support her head, she would be incapable of lifting anything, reduced to walking on all fours and so drastically underweight, she wouldn't be able to menstruate. But Lammily is more life-like with a 31" waist, 33" hips and a 32" bust if she was scaled up to human size

Lamm said, "I got a lot of requests from parents and kids to create the Lammily doll after they saw my 'Real Barbie' project last year". The doll "represents the idea that average, typical proportions are beautiful," he said.

Support has been pouring in for the pioneer who has raised 18% higher than his initial goal with 29 days of his campaign still left to go.

His aim is to produce 5,000 dolls ready to ship out in November 2014, adding, "Lammily will be a new character in the doll world, something that they've never had before".

With the tagline 'average is beautiful', we're excited to see what's in store for Lammily.

The doll has brown hair by default and comes with minimal make-up

Lammily's proportions represent an average 19-year-old's body.

She promotes a healthy lifestyle and an advanced design shows that the doll will be able to move her wrists, knees, elbows, and feet.

Like Barbie, she can also work a dress and pair of heels.

Watch Nickolay Lamm talk about how the Lammily doll was designed:

Words: Sejal Kapadia, Images: Nickolay Lamm/Rex Features