Bratz Dolls Dramatically Changed To Look Like Real Girls

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, Australian artist Sonia Singh went to local thrift shops with a mission to find dolls that were in need of a very necessary make-under.

When she began giving discarded Bratz dolls natural make-unders, she wasn’t setting out to make a statement . . . She simply loved playing with dolls. But when her Tree Change Dolls went viral, the world saw these creations less as playthings and more as a statement against the hypersexualization of little girls everywhere. By stripping the toys of their heavy makeup and unrealistically proportioned facial features, Sonia makes way for more relatable faces and outfits — and kids are loving it. “They look like someone our age,” stated one little girl as she played with a Tree Change Doll, pointing out that most dolls marketed at children don’t resemble them in the slightest.

“These little fashion dolls have opted for a ‘tree change,’ swapping high-maintenance glitz and glamour for down-to-earth style,” – wrote the artist on Tumblr.

She usually repaints the dolls’ faces, re-conditions their hair, moulds them new shoes and then dresses them in clothing sewn and knit by her mother.

The change is dramatic.

She’s also planning to start selling the “rescued and rehabilitated” dolls. And if the recent success of realistic Barbie alternatives is any indication, she will be very successful.

Last November, artist Nicolas Lamm began shipping out the Lammily doll, which is essentially a Barbie recreated with measurements of an average 19-year-old woman. More than 13,621 backers contributed more than $500,000 to his crowd-funding campaign, ordering 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 them that real life is cool? It’s not perfect, but it’s really all we have. And that’s awesome.”

Here is a summary of the article but you have to supply the missing words from the text.

Sonia went to ……………. (1) to buy dolls that needed a ……………. (2). She ……………. (3) the dolls of their makeup and changed their ……………. (4) and their ……………. (5) as well. The new clothes are ……………. (6) and ……………. (7) by her mother.

Most dolls don’t ……………. (8) but as a little girl said, Sonia’s rehabilitated dolls look like someone ……………. (9). Nicolas Lamm has already had great success in recreating dolls, his Barbies have the ……………. (10) of an average 19-year-old woman.

Key:

1. thrift shops

2. make-under

3. stripped

4. facial features

5. outfit/clothes

6. sewn

7. knit

8. resemble

9. their age

10. measurements