Walk into any toyshop in the world and the chances are you’ll be greeted by row upon row of big-breasted dolls with bee-stung lips and doe-eyes, wearing hardly any clothing. Now a new range of dolls, designed by women following creative input from girls, aims to break that mould.
SuperHero Girls transports DC Comics superheroes such as Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Woman back to their teens and is made by toy giant Mattel, best known for former behemoth Barbie. The dolls will arrive in stores in early 2016, alongside an animated TV show, a series of books and a tie-in with Lego.
An early preview of the range, aimed at girls aged six and over, at Comic-Con in New York last week, won plaudits from eager fans who singled out the athletic figures of the dolls – which designer Christine Kim has said drew on athletes and gymnasts for inspiration – as a major plus point.
“Girls want to experience the strength, action and optimism of superheroes too,” said Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment and chief content officer of Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, when the range was announced.
The new dolls are seen as a step away from the skinny, scantily clad likes of Monster High and Barbie, both of which are also made by Mattel. Kim designed the dolls after months of feedback from young girls, many of whom challenged Mattel’s original assumptions, telling the company that the initial dolls didn’t look able to fight, weren’t “heroic” enough or were too “girly”.
“I think overall these dolls are a good thing,” said Simon Ragoonanan, who runs the popular Man vs Pink blog chronicling his adventures bringing up his daughter, now almost four. “When they first announced it I was a bit sceptical because they looked sort of Disney-ish, but I’ve really come round. I think they offer young kids a different way into the superhero world, because most of the movies are too old and very serious, whereas these dolls are active and confident.”
Toy campaigners Let Toys Be Toys agree that the dolls are a step in the right direction, but add a cautionary note. “It’s really good to see toy companies begin to recognise that girls’ interests are a lot wider than the very narrow, pinkified version of girlhood packaged by the toy industry,” said campaigner Jess Day. “However, we’d argue that just as girls don’t need special ‘girl science’ toys or ‘girl construction’ toys, they don’t need a special, separate range of superheroes either. Rather than creating a separate superhero club for girls, why not stop shutting them out of the superhero club in the first place? What we’d like to see are toy ranges that include female characters alongside males, and marketing that’s inclusive to both boys and girls.”
It’s true that Mattel, whose profits have been in freefall (in January it reported a 59% decrease in fourth-quarter profits, thanks in part to declining Barbie sales), is desperate for a game changer. From 2016 the licence to make Disney Princess and Frozen figures passes from the Mattel to rival Hasbro, a loss that was described by one analyst as “a meaningful but not crippling negative”.
“Mattel are losing Frozen, they’re under pressure with Barbie and their dreadful sales figures,” said Lucie Follet, co-founder of Arklu, the company that makes the award-winning Lottie dolls that are hailed for being realistic dolls young children can relate to. “It’s also likely that they see the progress made by smaller manufacturers – like us – who, without the power of TV advertising, are nibbling away at the edges and creating products that are far more reflective of what kids want to play with. But it’s good to see that a tidal shift is taking place.”
Certainly it’s true that the SuperHero Girls range is tapping into a changing mood in the world of toys, a move away from the idea that girls must be princesses while their brothers get to save the world. Last year Arklu held a competition for children to design their own Lottie superhero doll. The winning design came from a six-year-old girl in Ohio. “We really try to incorporate kids’ ideas into what we’re doing,” said Follet. “That’s why we also try to involve female role models in our development process.”
As a result, Arklu’s Fossil Hunter Lottie is a collaboration with female scientists’ group TrowelBlazers, and Super Lottie brought in the US non-profit organsisation Brave Girls Alliance, which seeks to change the image of girls in the media.
In the US, new toy company IAmElemental used crowdsourcing website Kickstarter to help create its range of female superhero action figures, each representing a different aspect of courage (Bravery, Energy, Honesty, Industry, Enthusiasm, Persistence and Fear).
“We set out to specifically design action figures for girls because no one else was doing it,” said Julie Kerwin, the firm’s chief officer. “There were shelves and shelves of action figures for boys but you will not find one shelf in a toy store devoted to action figures for girls. Those that do exist are designed for collectors and inappropriate as playthings for the average four-year-old. We wanted to put a healthy image of women out into the world for young girls to identify with.”
Kerwin is delighted about Mattel’s new range, believing it’s proof of a slow but important shift in attitudes. “We started IAmElemental three years ago to change the conversation about choice in play, gender in toys and the perception of women in the media. When giant toy companies decide to get on board, that’s progress.”
Ragoonanan says it’s a shift worth celebrating. “I love the fact that Mattel and DC listened to girls when creating the SuperHero Girls,” he said. “They didn’t ignore them when they said they didn’t want Supergirl’s cape to be pink. They paid attention when they said Poison Ivy’s scarf would get in the way in a fight. I really do think it’s a big step forward.”
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