At a time when Barbie has taken over, and girlhood is being celebrated, I wanted to look into a childhood toy that kindled my outspoken, clothing-loving, and feminist self.
In the early 2000s, between the ongoing loop of Spice Girls music videos and constant re-watches of Elle Woods getting into Harvard, I sat in a beige carpeted basement in the suburbs of Ontario hosting fashion shows with a housewives-worthy drama starring Yasmine, Cloe, Sasha, and Jade.
I played with Barbie dolls at my friend’s houses and had my fair share of hand-me-down Polly Pockets from my older sister, but for me, Bratz were always my favourite. Released in 2001 by MGA Entertainment, the girls were different from the start with their fierce glare and jumbo detachable feet.
The Bratz look has remained so recognizable, that it’s shaped much of what we think of when we picture early 2000s fashion. Simply look up “Bratz Aesthetic” on Pinterest, and you’ll find the signature elements of the early-aughts look; dark overlined lips, chunky heeled boots, cropped-printed cardigans, and big fluffy accessories.
While dolls before Bratz, such as Barbie, are categorized as “fashion dolls,” Bratz were the first to be completely situated in the world of fashion. While Barbie was a doctor with a cute outfit, Bratz were designated as “Girls with a Passion for Fashion!” Since their release, Bratz has made big waves in fashion collaborating with brands such as Cult Gia, Puma, and Kylie Jenner.
While fashion has always been Bratz’s focus, the fashionable girls stand for much more than just girls with killer style. From their creation up until today, this staple of 2000s girlhood has a long and complex history.
Bratztory
Like many of fashion’s most inspiring moments, the idea for Bratz came to be from seeing the occurring trends of people in streetwear. Creator Carter Bryant saw a group of teenage girls outside of Kickapoo High School in Missouri in 1998 who he imagined to be the most popular and fashionable girls at school.
In the 2017 book, You Don’t Own Me, author Orly Lobel writes of Bryant’s moment of inspiration: “Carter, energized by his serendipitous encounter with the bubbly high school kids of Kickapoo, came home and began feverishly sketching a group of girlfriends. He gave them personalities: they were popular and hip, but neither fancy or stuck up. They had attitude and self-confidence. They were fearless and strong. Carter drew their hands on their hips to convey ‘just a bit of defiance.'”
The book goes on to explain the focus Bryant put on each character to be fully well-rounded, individual personalities. As specific as Jade “playing bass and studying classical violin and child psychology.” There was an emphasis on the girls being bold and smart — both well-dressed and intellectual.
According to Lookin’ Bratz, the self-proclaimed #1 Bratz Fan Account, “Bratztory” began when [Bryant’s] original pitch was denied for the dolls being “too alien-like” until the daughter of the CEO of MGA Entertainment advocated for the dolls. Eventually, the Bratz core four (Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, and Jade) were released to the public in the Spring of 2001 and by the end of the year, the brand started its course of becoming a cultural craze.
In the years that followed, Bratz’s success got the dolls voted Toy of The Year in 2001, along with the constant emergence of a stream of fashionable collections and add-ons to the core four. In 2002, Lil’ Bratz and Bratz Boyz were released. Then followed their first of 16 movies, the iconic lipstick phone, and Big Bratz. In just a few years the brand had expanded the Bratz name into movies, video games, magazines and anything else little girls could ask their parents for.
During the explosion of the fashionable four, a long-held legal battle was in the works between MGA Entertainment and Barbie’s Mattel. According to Lobel’s book, the drama surrounded the ownership of Bratz following the revelation that Bryant was working for Mattel when he pitched Bratz to MGA Entertainment. Eventually, the case was settled declaring ownership in the hands of MGA Entertainment in 2010.
Between lawsuits and angry parents, the Gen Z demographic for the dolls grew from elementary school through to high school. During these years, the brand took many hiatuses and logo changes. Competitors began to rise, copying Bryant’s iconic style with dolls like Monster High stepping onto the toy runway. But with the rise of social media and Gen Z becoming older, Bratz shifted their groove to work with its maturing consumers.
In 2018, fashion illustrator Hayden Williams worked with the brand to create a collector line of Bratz, reminiscent of the original style doll. The collection was so well received, that the collection’s dolls are still selling on eBay for upwards of $250.
Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, and Jade have continued to show the world that their style is ever-lasting and has only been able to grow with their audience. Since 2018, Bratz has kept busy keeping up with the latest trends. Most recently, Bratz has been brought to life digitally with a 5-year mini-series, to be watched on TikTok and Instagram.
A Bratz World
The early 2000s was a complicated time for feminism and young girls. While the idea of “girl power” was gaining attention, “internalized misogyny ran deep in the 2000s,” reads a Guardian article following the Britney Spears documentary. While Bratz were teaching me about the power of female friendship and accessorizing to express my individualism, the creators at MGA Entertainment were dealing with a lot of controversy surrounding the highly stylized dolls.
So often, I’ve heard from girls my age that their parents didn’t let them play with Bratz because they were too provocative or, even better, deemed “the slutty Barbie.” Bryant’s style was so much different from the “cookie-cutter” look dolls had all shared before Bratz that many parents were so turned off by their edgy, sassy look. But looking into this backlash can reveal more tired and harmful narratives.
While parents complained of promiscuous clothing and heavy makeup on the dolls, Bratz were simply the first to bring diversity and fashion into an otherwise “simple” market. While companies like Barbie and Disney have slowly become more diverse, Bratz were refreshingly diverse from the start. Yasmin was Latina, Cloe was White, Sasha was Black, and Jade was Asian. Each girl had their own culture, personality and background from the day of their creation.
Having adults complain that their looks were promiscuous told girls that finally saw themselves in a doll, that they were promiscuous. Which only added to the existing prejudice that women of colour are subject to intensified sexualization.
Society was so concerned about the dolls, that in 2007, the American Psychological Association (APA) released the “Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls,” where the first few sentences of the introduction deemed American Toy Manufacturers of sexualizing “girls and girlhood” in the production of “dolls wearing black leather mini skirts, feather boas, and thigh high-boots” — AKA Bratz.
The APA reports their “task force” criminalizes stores selling lip gloss for young girls. As a child who owned many soda-flavoured Lip Smackers, I sincerely question the basis on which the APA is claiming these toys as being sexualizing agents. Who is really doing the sexualizing here? Lip Smacker? My five-year-old self? My mother, whom I begged, to buy me the Orange Crush flavour? Or possibly the self-acclaimed task force insinuating that things wanted by little girls are deemed bad.
The report makes valid points about how advertising and media can create negative scenarios regarding the sexualization of girls and children (a current example being the 2022 Balenciaga scandal). As a girl who experienced the world of Bratz in their prime, their sleek makeup, cheetah print clothes, and plastic accessories provided more merit than not in my personal development.
In the end, I have Bratz to thank for my interest in fashion and passion for female friendships. I had all the dolls, watched all the movies, played all the games, and at the end of the day, if Bratz made me proud and outgoing with my voice and body growing up, then I’m thankful that it did.
I believe it’s easy for our society to put down things that are associated with girls and women as being “too sexual,” “too loud,” or “too frivolous.” So, we might as well embrace the toys, movies, celebrities, and music that we grew up loving and focus on the strength and fun they provided us, because, there will always be somebody with something to say.