The very beginning of this year, cancer advocate Jane Bingham launched a Facebook page asking Mattel to introduce a bald version of the well known Barbie doll to support children with cancer. Mattel quickly responded to Bingham with a letter stating that they do not accept submissions from consumers- lame right?
Well when the Beautiful And Bald Barbie movement took off and accumulated more than 160,000 Facebook “likes,” the toy maker announced it would produce 10,000 limited-edition bald Barbie dolls to donate exclusively to U.S. children’s hospitals.
Bingham was excited they agreed to do something- but with only 10,000 dolls being produced and 12,000+ kids diagnosed with cancer per year it just didn’t make any sense. Not a lot of kids would be able to actually own one and because there were only so many they would end up being a collector’s item with a super high resale price.
At the same time, Mattel competitor MGA Entertainment (Moxie and Bratz maker) was very carefully watching everything. MGA approached Bingham and developed the “True Hope” dolls. The series consists of three beautufil bald Bratz dolls and and three bald Moxie Girlz dolls!
For MGA Entertainment- details matter. All of these dolls, for instance, do not have eyebrows since most cancer patients lose theirs. Wigs are also not included with the dolls, nor are they available as separate accessories. “We want to show that you don’t have to have hair to be beautiful,” says Susan Hale- MGA Entertainment marketing coordinator. Each doll package comes with a kid-sized beaded bracelet, in honor of young cancer patients. “Kids receive a bead every time they finish a treatment. They use their collections as a way to countdown to the end of their treatment,” says Bingham.
We were sent the Bratz Yasmin doll. With Yasmin. courage is always in style! Yasmin comes with a second outfit, a hat and the beaded bracelet. Carlee is a bit young for the Bratz dolls because she always messes up their hair and mommy has to spend what seems like forever untangling it after she is done playing with it. However with her True Hope doll- we don’t have this issue!
Buy It: The True Hope collection debuts exclusively at Toys ‘R’ Us beginning June 11th. Head to your local Toys ‘R’ Us and get one for your little girl or boy!
I never liked the Bratz dolls, but I have to say, this is an absolutely wonderful (and smart) thing MGA is doing. I’d DEFINITELY but one for my child!!