Barbie gets hipper and hotter
Barbie gets hipper, trendier to beat competition
A new kind of Barbie doll has hit the stores, one with platform shoes, low-rise jeans, heavier makeup and an exposed navel. Called My Scene Barbie, the doll is Mattel’s attempt to stop girls from growing out of Barbie too fast and too soon — and from defecting to Bratz, a line of funky, sultry-eyed dolls that have become must-haves for the 8-to-12 age group since their launch more than a year ago.
I’m not into Barbies,” said Alex Stallings, 7, of Baltimore, who has five Bratz dolls. “Bratz are cool. I am into fashion.”
Payton Anderson, 8, of Atlanta, said she been over Barbies since she was 6, and now wants Bratz dolls. “Barbies are too babyish,” said Payton, who has given her Barbies to her 5-year-old sister.
Bratz’s five-character multi-ethnic assortment has supplanted Barbie as the nation’s No. 1 best-selling fashion doll for six months
Fashion dolls from the Bratz collection on display in the office of Isaac Larian, chief executive officer of MGA Entertainment. The doll, a line of funky dolls with sultry eyes and oversized heads, has become must-haves for the so-called tweens, 8-12 age group, since launching about a year and a half ago.
Mattel said the new Barbie is an attempt to capitalize on the lucrative business for the age group known as tweens.
Over the past decade, girls have been playing with Barbie at a younger age — her core fans are now 3 to 6, down from 7 to 10 — and outgrowing her sooner. Bratz dolls appeal to older girls who like a teenage look rather than Barbie’s princess fashions.
“The signs were out there for some time” that Barbie would need a change, said Jamie Cygielman, vice president of worldwide marketing for the Barbie bran ...