When examining a Bratz doll, you might notice the toy resembles a weirdly sexy lady-alien with plumped-up lips rather than the 12-year-old girl she is marketed to.
Frustrated by this trend, Tasmanian artist Sonia Singh went to local thrift shops with a mission to find dolls that were in need of a very necessary make-under.
“These lil fashion dolls have opted for a ‘tree change,’ swapping high-maintenance glitz ‘n’ glamour for down-to-earth style,” Singh writes on her Tumblr.
Singh repaints their faces, re-conditions their hair, molds them new shoes and then dresses them in clothing sewn and knit by her mother.
The change is dramatic:
In the spirit of supporting positive body image and women’s rights, Singh tells TIME she is asking supporters to donate to the International Women’s Development Agency. She’s also planning to start selling the “rescued and rehabilitated” dolls on Etsy. And if the recent success of realistic Barbie alternatives is any indication, she will be very successful.
In November, artist Nicolas Lamm began shipping out the Lammily doll, which is essentially a Barbie recreated with the CDC’s measurements of an average 19-year-old woman. More than 13,621 backers contributed more than $500,000 to his crowd-funding campaign, ordering more some 19,000 dolls.
“I wanted to show that reality is cool,” Lamm told TIME.. “And a lot of toys make kids go into fantasy, but why don’t they show real life is cool? It’s not perfect, but it’s really all we have. And that’s awesome.”
See the updated Bratz dolls here.
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