Bratz (Paperback)

Bratz is a popular and controversial line of fashion dolls and related merchandise designed by Carter Bryant and manufactured by southern California toy company MGA Entertainment. The four original 10" dolls - Cloe, Jade, Sasha, and Yasmin - are teenagers distinguished by large heads and skinny bodies, almond-shaped eyes adorned with eyeshadow, and lush, glossy lips. Though Bratz dolls fared poorly at their June 2001 debut, their popularity increased the following Christmas. In their first five years, 125 million were sold worldwide, and, in 2005, global sales of Bratz and Bratz products reached two billion dollars. In 2006, a toy-industry analyst indicated Bratz had captured about forty percent of the fashion-doll market, compared with Barbie's sixty per cent. Bratz have provoked controversy in several areas. Criticism has been leveled at the labor conditions under which the dolls are manufactured in China, and the American Psychological Association has expressed concern about the sexualization of the dolls' clothing and its effect on children. Some of the Bratz characters dress in what is perceived by some as a provocative manner.