A Doll Line for Girls Of Color Just Slayed On “Shark Tank”
This is so awesome!
On Friday’s episode of “Shark Tank,” Angelica and Jason Sweeting pitched their company “Naturally Perfect Dolls” to the show’s investors in hopes of securing a $200,000 investment for their company.
The couple explained that they were looking to redefine the standard images of beauty in children’s toys by starting their own line of multicultural dolls, hoping to give little girls of color a positive reflection of themselves on store shelves.
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“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 his pitch. “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!”
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Angelica and Jason explained that the idea for the company came from an incident after a book fair with their daughter, where she profusely cried on the car ride home.
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“Finally when she calms down, we say, ‘Hey babe, what’s wrong with you?’” Jason said. “She says, ‘Dad, I’ll never be beautiful. I need yellow hair and white skin so that way I can be beautiful.’ And we were totally devastated.”
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Although the sharks loved the idea, they were hesitant to make offers due to doll’s high prices of $84.99 and the failure of other multicultural doll lines created by larger companies.
However, the founders’ story really resonated with judge and FUBU creator Daymond John, who proposed an investment of $200,000 at 30% ownership, 60% for the founders and 10% for charity. The couple gladly accepted the offer, ensuring that the dolls would be mass produced.
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The “Naturally Perfect Doll” line includes four different dolls of varying hair types and colors, skin shades and facial features true to women of color. An affirmation book as well as a t-shirt featuring the characters are also available for purchase.
(H/T The Huffington Post)