Little Hotties Barbies & Bratz

Margaret Talbot, has a fascinating article, in the New Yorker, on the Barbie doll and her close competitor with 40% of market share the Bratz doll.

Bratz dolls have large heads and skinny bodies; their almond shaped eyes are tilted upwards at the edges and adorned with thick crescents of eye shadow, and their lips are lush and pillowy, glossed to a candy apple sheen and rimed with dark lip liner. They look like pole dancers on their way to work at a gentleman’s club. Unlike Barbie, they can stand unassisted.

Bratz dolls feed and play upon this culture’s obsession with girls being sassy (euphemism for sexy) and therefore discarding traditional toys at a younger age. The dolls tend to look ethnically indeterminate with names to match like Nevra, Kiana, Jade and Yasmin.

M.G.A or Micro Games of America is run by an Iranian immigrant, Isaac Larian, and he owns the Bratz doll copyright. He thinks that Barbies represent a “mommy figure” and young girls don’t particularly want to play with their mommies. His company wants to hold on to the six to twelve year old market, by playing up the celebrity and diva aspect of the dolls.

“Bratz are not merely dolls but ‘fashion icons’ that look to the runways and what kids wear in and out of school for inspiration.”


Mattel introduced My Scene Barbie, which kept Barbie’s basic dimensions, but had bigger eyes, plumper, shinier lips and hotter clothes. This was to corner some of the market that the Bratz dolls had been taking over.

There are other dolls that do not play with the “sassy” theme so much, like the historical dolls from American Girl, and Groovy Girls

The class divide is clear, American Girl dolls sold at American Girl Place are expensive, innocent looking and old fashioned, appealing to well off white parents willing to spend whatever it takes to prolong their daughter’s childhood. Bratz and My Scene Barbie are catering to the world’s version of gangsta chic.