Parents and girls want more diverse, empowering toys—or at least the people who keep giving to the related Kickstarter campaigns do.
Goldiblox raised nearly twice its ambitious Kickstarter goal of $150,000 and went on to be sold in over 6,000 stores. Lammily, a doll with the proportions of an average 19-year-old woman, did even better. It raised over five times its goal of $95,000 and received nearly 20,000 preorders.
As seen in the video above, iBesties is hoping to take advantage of this trend with the explicit goal of taking on inequality in the business world. Among Fortune 500 companies, only 26 are led by women—a mere 5.2 percent. Of the 26 woman-led companies, only four are tech firms.
Why the stark imbalance? iBesties co-founders Jenae and Gina Heitkamp say part of the reason is the lack of early childhood examples of successful businesswomen. The dolls’ unapologetic girliness may turn some heads, but their dual identities seem to toy with the imaginary divide between “traditional” femininity and what it takes to thrive in the business world.
iBesties are attempting to raise $50,000 for the first production run of dolls. The campaign ends July 31, but if you can never be sold on coiffed dolls for girls, the line will almost certainly not be the last in the trend.
