DIVERSITY IN TOYLAND
LINE AIMS TO MEET DEMAND FOR DOLLS OF MANY ETHNICITIES
When Los-Angeles-based toy designer Stacey McBride-Irby mentioned to Houston businessman Trent T. Daniel that she wanted to create a line of multicultural dolls, he was intrigued.
The two met as speakers for the United Negro College Fund Empowerment Tour at Hampton University in Virginia in 2010.
Daniel, a father of three teenage daughters, said he knew the frustration of trying to find dolls of color. McBrideIrby — who created Mattel’s So In Style collection — said she wanted to design more dolls of color at the company but didn’t have the opportunity. Her So In Style collection was the company’s first nonwhite doll that wasn’t a version of the classic blond Barbie.
Daniel raised $5 million to launch the line. McBride-Irby quit her job and began working on designs.
In 2012, the two formed One World Doll Project and launched Prettie Girls! Dolls, a collection of six, 16-inch dolls that are culturally diverse. There’s Lena (African American), Kimani (African), Valencia (Hispanic), Dhara (South Asian), Alexie (Caucasian) and Hana (Asian).
“Prettie” stands for Positive, Respectful, Enthusiastic, Truthful, Talented, Inspiring and Excellent.
The dolls, which retail for $23.94 each, launched at 3,000 Walmart stores, including Houston locations, in October.
“We wanted to create a doll that had a positive image for many different girls,” said Daniel, a Prairie View A&M University graduate, entrepreneur and business-development coach. “We wanted to focus on aspirational values and positive messages.”
The demand for nonwhite dolls has been brewing for years.
“We wanted to create a doll that had a positive image for many different girls.
We wanted to focus on aspirational values and positive messages.”
Trent Daniel
In 2012, Chris Nee created Disney’s “Doc McStuffins” animated television series about a 6-yearold African-American girl who practices being a doctor like her mother. It spun off a best-selling toy line with $500 million in sales last year. Also, Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer, a hugely popular Latina character, has sold $12 billion in merchandise since its 2000 launch.
According to the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, which represents 80 percent of the U.S. toy retail market, doll sales totaled $2.3 billion in 2014, up 4 percent from 2013. Industry experts say children still gravitate toward toys and characters that look like them.
Last year, American Girl, which is owned by Mattel, received criticism and online protests when it dropped a doll of Asian descent, Ivy, and another of African descent, Cécile, from its historical character collection. They were retired along with two Caucasian dolls as the line was being revamped.
Historically, American Girl dolls come in a variety of skin tones, hair and eye color, which can be mixed and matched so the doll resembles its owner. There are also dolls that come with wheelchairs, crutches and ones without hair to represent those who have lost hair to cancer.
The first black Barbie was launched in 1980 but with obvious white features. Bratz dolls were introduced in 2001 with ethnically ambiguous features and varying skin tones. Recently, the line debuted dolls resembling actresses Taraji P. Henson and Uzo Aduba of NetFlix’s “Orange Is the New Black.”
As a fashion-design student, McBride-Irby was inspired after reading about Kitty Black-Perkins, an African-American woman who was chief designer of fashions and doll concepts for Mattel’s Barbie line for more than 25 years. She later worked under Black-Perkins for four years.
In 2008, McBride-Irby also created a sorority Barbie, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first African-American Greek sorority, founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
She created the So In Style doll collection in 2009, featuring dolls with various skin tones and fuller noses and lips, but with her own daughter losing interest in dolls, she wanted to do more.
“I realized I needed to do something because she was getting older and wasn’t gravitating to dolls. She wanted dolls that looked like and represented her,” McBride-Irby said.
Daniel said sales for Prettie Girls! Dolls are expected to reach $1.4 million this year, and McBride-Irby added that she hopes they empower girls of all cultural backgrounds.
“There are so many negative images today that influence what girls look like and how they see themselves. I want these dolls to give them their innocence back,” she said.