I named the Fashionista "Reenie" after a character in the book When Pigs Fly. In the book Reenie was a brunette, but oh well. Miss Emily has discussed this doll in full on her blog, so I'm just going to take a picture of her cute little face...
...and show y'all her ears. They're small and low-set, as Down syndrome ears often are.
Oh yeah, and the shoes. Folks with Down syndrome can have crummy muscle tone, so a lot of 'em wear leg braces. Reenie has pink ones.
Barbie is Barbie is Barbie, no matter how diverse she becomes. I once asked here on the blog that with all the changes she'd undergone, was she really Barbie anymore? Now I have my answer. That said, Reenie is a special little doll. She's got plenty of little details in her clothes and on her body that make her Down syndrome clear, but all the same she's Barbie!
Reenie's friend is Liya, and I think that of all the Naturalistas I got the one with the biggest hair.
I'm no stranger to dolls with Afros, as Jova, Theta, and Dandelion show, but none of them really teach anything about natural black hair. Liya and her friends hope to change that. The back of Liya's box discusses her hair type a little...and it also points out that while Liya is a model, she is no dummy.
Engineering! We need good engineers in this world. Now...being ignant I thought that stretched hair sounded excruciating, so I did some research and learned what it really means. This website tells it best, but stretched styles are apparently very good for tightly coiled hair. Liya's hair is 4C, apparently the tightest coils one can get, and also apparently the highest in maintenance. But high-maintenance doesn't mean it's bad hair. As Hair.com puts it, all hair is good hair! Hair.com goes on to say that 4C holds styles long-term, and there appears to be no end to the styles so the sky is the limit! Indeed, I can remember my black girlfriends during high school, rocking one well-maintained style for weeks, only changing it when they got bored or fancied a change.
Alrighty, let's look a little closer at Liya's other attributes. Her hair is her crowning glory, but she's also got a pretty face. Not goofy like a lot of Barbie faces, but not bitchy either.
Buried deep under her ample hair are tiny studs in a silvery blue color.
These match Liya's dress, a simple little sheath dress with "NATURALISTAS" printed across the bosom.
Liya is sadly not the most posable doll, lacking clicky knees, but in her defense Reenie's posing isn't great either. Both dolls can move their arms out at the shoulder (not all of my dolls can), and they can both sit, though Liya is better at sitting. She can cross her legs when she sits.
I like dolly feet, so here's a look at Liya's big, pretty feet and her proportionately big shoes.
Thank goodness she's got shoes of her own, because Barbie shoes would never fit. Liya's shoes remind me (once again) of a high school friend, one who was always dressed to the nines and wore super-tall stilettos. Sweetest girl in the world, she was! She was pretty enuff to be a model and could've been conceited as hell, but she wasn't. Anywho, Naturalistas can't wear Barbie shoes, and the shoes I have on hand are hit-or-miss, so it's a good thing their outfit packs come with shoes.
I only saw two outfits for these dolls and one was a bathrobe, so I got this one instead. I love the neutral colors and the pops of pink here and there. I don't love that Liya can't hold her coffee or her cell phone.
Both items fit into Liya's purse, but can y'all imagine trying to carry coffee in your purse??? LOL, good thing it's pretend coffee!
Debbie Behan Garrett, my go-to for info on black dolls, talks a little more about this line on her blog. If y'all are more of an eighteen-inch doll fan, Wal-Mart also carries Healthy Roots dolls, which are bigger but have the same concept as the Naturalistas. Miss Emily reviews one of those HERE.
To my surprise Bomgaars carries a small selection of toys. Most of them are agricultural in nature, tractors and Breyer horses and the like, and I won't knock that. But there was also a small selection of fashion dolls, including one that I'm not too familiar with, Steffi Love. Steffi Love is a Barbie doll clone, and I vaguely remember some at Kmart that had a Gothic theme. This one is obviously the Little Mermaid.
I've always been fond of Barbie clones, so I need to grub one of these dolls up and review her. If she can top Kari Mitchell I'll be very surprised...but then again I do like surprises if they're good. Whatever I do, y'all will be the first to know.
Love to all,
RagingMoon1987
I like the new outfit the most of the things that you purchased. Maybe if you were going to some fancy coffee place her outfit would work.
ReplyDeleteNow that WOULD work, yes!
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