I don't mean to be a traitor to my generation, but Barbie has always made me a little uncomfortable, with her unrealistic proportions and the way her vet uniform is shorter than my negligees. That's why I'm so excited to introduce you to a new doll that little girls can actually relate to, because she looks like them and shares their interests.
Bonus: she can bend her legs to ride her pony and isn't always on her tiptoes.
This is Lottie, and she's a lot like your kid. She likes butterflies, robots, gymnastics, karate, horseback riding, and fashion, although her fashion sense is more Punky Brewster than Cher's navel-revealing Oscars gown. Lottie is all about girls being girls and having a positive body image. She looks like a girl, bends like a girl, is a great size for little hands, and can stand on her own two feet — a pretty useful function.
Since she's geared toward ages 3 to 9, she doesn't even come with makeup or jewelry, and she encourages girls to be themselves and have fun rather than grow up too fast. Win!
That being said, she does have tons of outfits, accessories, and pets, so your kid will be sure to enjoy changing her outfits with their tiny Velcro fasteners. And she comes in a variety of hair and skin colors. You know: just like real girls.
Lottie has more adventures on the way, including a series of chapter books slated for 2014. And although her website is just getting started, the company is all about spreading girl power by celebrating heroes like Ada Lovelace which....wow.
My daughter's favorite Lottie is the Butterfly Protector doll, who's having a great time riding Seren the pony in a field of My Little Ponies. My son got in on the Lottie fun with Robot Girl Lottie and her Busy Lizzie the robot, who comes with fun accessories, and I'm pretty sure Busy Lizzie has defected to the Transformers.
We found the quality of the dolls to be great, from the movability of the doll to the ease of opening the packaging to the fact that there's no "plastic stink" like we find with lower quality dolls. Our butterfly net broke on the first day, so if your little girl loves accessories, you might want to keep the more slender pieces away from younger brothers and their robot battles. But overall, I'm really excited to have Lottie around.
Find the full range of Lottie dolls and accessories at the Lottie website or at our affiliate Amazon. Thanks to Lottie for providing dolls for review.
