Mighty Girls: Artist Wendy Tsao transforms Bratz dolls into iconic women

A Canadian artist is stripping the thick make-up and flashy clothes from Bratz dolls and transforming them into girls who grow up to be powerful, inspiring role models like Malala Yousafzai, Jane Goodall and JK Rowling.

Wendy Tsao said she hoped the dolls inspired children and helped them see them that all remarkable women were just like them at one point.

“Will she understand while playing with a young version of Jane Goodall, that Jane was a child once — like herself — who grew up to do things that were important to her?” Tsao told the ABC in a statement.

“Will this have a positive impact on the child’s feelings about what they want to do when they grow up?”

Tsao’s creations also depict Somali model and social activist Waris Dirie, feminist art icon Frida Kahlo and Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.

She said she chose women she really admired “for what they did or achieved and continue to do”.

“They should be role models instead of, or at least, alongside the products of Disney and Hollywood,” Tsao said.

“But then, I’m an adult. Perhaps a child can’t relate to these role models, because these women are adults. Maybe we need to show children that these remarkable women were once children too.”

Tsao said she found her first role model a little closer to home.

“The first role model in my life was my older sister, who paved the way for me, so to speak, in the way that firstborns do: they ‘break in’ the parents and they set the bar,” she said.

“She taught me lots of things, she beat up my bullies and we also squabbled about stupid things.

“She has a huge ‘can-do, anything is possible’ attitude that I have always admired and respected.”

Tsao said her work was inspired by Australian Sonia Singh, whose Tree Change dolls give Bratz figures a real-world make-under.

She said she also thought a lot about the “ongoing disparaging comments” about Bratz figures, which have been criticised for sexualising children and accused of having a negative impact on body image.

“It made me consider the alternative or opposite. Could a child learn something positive from their dolls?” Tsao said.

“That’s when I came up with the idea of making inspiring-women-as-young-children dolls.

“I wonder if a child plays with this doll, will she have other conversations with her friends or family about this inspiring person, and think about and learn things that she might not have if she played with say, a Bratz doll or Barbie or Disney character doll?”

Source:  ABC