“Dad, I’ll never be beautiful. I need yellow hair and white skin so that way I can be beautiful.”
That’s all it took Angelica and Jason Sweeting to hear from one of their daughter after picking her up from a school book fair where she couldn’t stop crying. They knew they had to do something. Something to change their daughter’s outlook on what beauty is and other little girls who may going through similar struggles with self love.
*Insert the Natural Perfect Doll*
They founded the line in 2015 which includes four dolls with different hair types, skin shades and facial features that are true to women of color. The company also offers a T-shirt depicting the characters and an affirmation book.
The Sweeting’s recently appeared on the hit show Shark Tank where they pitched the line.
“Naturally Perfect Dolls aims to change the standard of beauty one doll at a time while encouraging self-acceptance, diversity and letting girls know that they can be whatever they want to be,” Jason said in their pitch on the program. “I mean look at us, right? We’re all a little bit different. But our differences shouldn’t be ignored. In fact, they should be accepted and celebrated!”
According to the Huffington Post, the judges liked the idea of the Naturally Perfect Doll but due to the doll’s high price ($84.99) they weren’t so quick to invest. However, judge and FUBU creator Daymond John was moved by the story and he proposed to invest $200,000 at 30% ownership, 60% for the founders and 10% for charity. The Sweetings accepted, ensuring that they’ll be able to mass produce the dolls.
https://www.facebook.com/SharkTank/videos/1407213542623113/
I love seeing the number of parents stepping up and creating multicultural toy lines of color in honor of their children. We all know that many of the toy aisle lack diversity when it comes to dolls and the ones of color typically aren’t the prettiest or most aesthetically pleasing so this is important.
It’s important to show our little girls that they are beautiful and there are options out there that look like them! Congrats to the Sweetings!
