I was thinking of you and your thoughts on Bratz (with which I agree) recently. I adopted a 9 year old girl from the Angel Tree at church, and literally, the only thing she wanted was Bratz (well, and a coat, but that just made me sad).
I discussed with my husband, and we agreed that were she OUR daughter, there would be no Bratz under the Christmas tree. But since she's NOT our kid, I felt very torn.
Ultimately, I wanted to give her something she wanted, because obviously the kid has a hard life. My husband told me to look for the least Bratzy Bratz doll and hope for the best. What did I do? I discovered at Target a line of the Bratz dolls focused on exercise. While the doll's face still looked like a girl-gang-banger/hooker, at least she was wearing a jogging suit, and came with a soccer ball and a trophy, hopefully encouraging activity and involvement and other positive things like that.
Can you tell I'm still distressed that my hard earned dollars bought a Bratz doll?

I'm with you there Jonna.

The girl we adopted wanted only a Disney Princess Costume. Not only did I go against my own general anti-Disney princess council. I also spent an absurd amount for the packaging.

But, I knew it would delight her on Christmas morning. And she is not my kid.

My daughter was also given a Barbie Laptop, which of course I let her keep. I mean, Barbie is the only one who makes a pink kid's laptop.

I'm pretty flexible about my rules when it comes to paraphernelia like skate boards and laptops iwth Barbie and Princess logos and extremely flexible when it comes to used stuff I find at garage sales.

Though, I am super rigid about Bratz (for my own kid, anyway).

I am so glad that we haven't had to deal with Bratz dolls. I have to say that I enjoyed the video and I will be emailing the link to your post to some of my friends!

This is brilliant! I have a "no character" rule in our house so neither sons nor daughter have character toys. Now, a random Transformer or Dora has appeared (thanks to an uncle or godparent)but that is it. I even refuse to buy the Disney Princess stuff since I want my daughter to think of herself or her own image of a princess - not the Disnified Cinderella!

Jonna, the same thing happened to me a couple of years ago when I signed up to give to a foster child for Christmas. All that kid wanted was a Bratz doll. I finally found one with a ski theme, -- and believe it or not she was wearing a long-sleeve turtleneck sweater, ski pants & boots! I balanced it out with some clothes and books to make myself feel better.

I was thinking of you and your thoughts on Bratz (with which I agree) recently. I adopted a 9 year old girl from the Angel Tree at church, and literally, the only thing she wanted was Bratz (well, and a coat, but that just made me sad).
I discussed with my husband, and we agreed that were she OUR daughter, there would be no Bratz under the Christmas tree. But since she's NOT our kid, I felt very torn.
Ultimately, I wanted to give her something she wanted, because obviously the kid has a hard life. My husband told me to look for the least Bratzy Bratz doll and hope for the best. What did I do? I discovered at Target a line of the Bratz dolls focused on exercise. While the doll's face still looked like a girl-gang-banger/hooker, at least she was wearing a jogging suit, and came with a soccer ball and a trophy, hopefully encouraging activity and involvement and other positive things like that.
Can you tell I'm still distressed that my hard earned dollars bought a Bratz doll?

I'm with you there Jonna.

The girl we adopted wanted only a Disney Princess Costume. Not only did I go against my own general anti-Disney princess council. I also spent an absurd amount for the packaging.

But, I knew it would delight her on Christmas morning. And she is not my kid.

My daughter was also given a Barbie Laptop, which of course I let her keep. I mean, Barbie is the only one who makes a pink kid's laptop.

I'm pretty flexible about my rules when it comes to paraphernelia like skate boards and laptops iwth Barbie and Princess logos and extremely flexible when it comes to used stuff I find at garage sales.

Though, I am super rigid about Bratz (for my own kid, anyway).

I am so glad that we haven't had to deal with Bratz dolls. I have to say that I enjoyed the video and I will be emailing the link to your post to some of my friends!

This is brilliant! I have a "no character" rule in our house so neither sons nor daughter have character toys. Now, a random Transformer or Dora has appeared (thanks to an uncle or godparent)but that is it. I even refuse to buy the Disney Princess stuff since I want my daughter to think of herself or her own image of a princess - not the Disnified Cinderella!

Jonna, the same thing happened to me a couple of years ago when I signed up to give to a foster child for Christmas. All that kid wanted was a Bratz doll. I finally found one with a ski theme, -- and believe it or not she was wearing a long-sleeve turtleneck sweater, ski pants & boots! I balanced it out with some clothes and books to make myself feel better.