Naturally Perfect's successful 2015 Kickstarter culminated in the creation of the 18-inch tall, Angelica doll, shown above. Promoted as "a doll with facial features true to women of color and hair you can style/wash as natural hair," the doll is made of vinyl.
The company later received additional funding after their January 2017 appearance on ABC's Shark Tank with Daymond John (founder of FuBu) investing $200,000 in the company for 20% equity. Watch the Shark Tank pitch next:
Naturally Perfect is now Mayzeepedia: "the girl encyclopedia." Their slogan is, "We know girls."
Their About page shares: "We are creating Mayzeepedia to let girls know they are beautiful. Our girls need to see a reflection of their own unique beauty. It's time for our young girls to have a new standard."
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| Screen snapshot from the company's website |
In addition to Angelica, Brielle, Camryn, and Kennedy are now part of the Mayzeepedia doll family. The dolls share Angelica's sculpt and body attributes but are offered in different complexions and hair colors. They are currently available for preorder for $49.99 ($40 off the retail price of $89.99). Expected date of delivery is February 2018.
Below is text from the company's sponsored Facebook ad with a link to a video illustrating the many ways the dolls' hair can be styled.
When your daughter plays with her dolls - she sees beauty. The problem is that beauty comes in all types of skin colors and hair textures - but unfortunately, most dolls do not.🤔We LOVE our beautiful black daughters so instead of complaining - we took ACTION. We created a line of beautiful dolls with washable and stylable hair that represent our daughters of color.
❤️
💛
🖤Want to give your little princess a doll that will enlighten, inspire and empower her for years to come?
For a limited time, you can preorder your doll and save 33% off the regular price! Click now to shop —> https://mayzeepedia.com
Click here to view the video. Follow the ad link or here to view/preorder the dolls.
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The doll has a cute face, but overall I feel like she is a bit ho-hum. I still hope this family is moderately successful. I like that there are more black dolls available, like when a line doesn't have a doll with brown skin I go, "Where's the black one?", but also when I see lines that are exclusively black I go, "Are they ALL black?" I'm fine with most of them being black or maybe some multiracial, but sometimes I want to see an Asian one up in there too, you know? When I was a child I liked for my dolls to have variety as opposed to a doll that looked like me, as long as they were cute and fun. These are a bit too similar. It would have been nice to see one with twists or locs or one with more of an afro and even at least one boy in the line, perhaps with his hair flocked around the sides with his curls on top. Maybe all that wouldn't have been cost effective at this stage. I just feel like some small companies get so targeted on one thing that they overlook some other aspects that might broaden their appeal. That's just a collector's opinion, not a child or a mom, so take that with a grain of salt I guess.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading this post and for sharing your opinion.
DeleteKeep in mind that the target market for these is children. I understand the business plan to use the one head sculpt. As illustrated in the video, the hair is very versatile and can be styled a multitude of ways. I do appreciate the now inclusion of different complexions.
Personally, I am always thrilled to see the gap closing in on what has for so long been a lack of choice in black dolls for children and applaud the efforts of those who utilize their resources to close in the gap with aesthetically pleasing black dolls and other dolls of color. The struggle to find black dolls will eventually be conquered, one manufacturer at a time...
As for other ethnicities being underrepresented in the doll market, I agree. It's time for those who desire these dolls to roll up their sleeves and be like Mayzeepedia -- create their own line of dolls. If we wait on others to do what we can do for ourselves, a change will never come.
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hi I love the work you guys are doing I wanted to know why did you change your name?
ReplyDeleteIf you need additional information about Mayzeepedia, please contact them through their website; the link is provided in this post. I am not affiliated with them.
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