If you ever tried to do a twist out on Barbie’s hair — hmph — you’d be quite disappointed with the final results. But thanks to the new Angelica Doll, trying out popular natural hair styles will be a breeze.
The Angelica Doll is an 18-inch tall toy with a glorious afro that allows young girls to style kinky-textured hair into bantu knots, twist outs, curls, blow outs — you name it. Angelica also has features that are often a rarity among popular dolls on the market today.
“She has the wide nose and plump pout many young Black girls see in the mirror every day,” PopSugar said.
The mastermind behind the Angelica Doll is Angelica Sweeting, founder of Naturally Perfect Dolls. The lightbulb for this business idea switched on when Sweeting realized the dearth of kinky-textured dolls was affecting her little girl’s self-esteem. She wanted to instill self-love in her daughter and she was falling into the trap of yearning for Eurocentric beauty.
“My daughter Sophia was not happy with her kinks and curls because of the doll I was putting in her hands every day. Sophia wanted long straight hair, and she even started expressing a strong dislike for her facial features and skin tone,” Sweeting said on her Kickstarter.
To get the Angelica Doll on toy shelves, Sweeting’s Kickstarter campaign set out to raise $25,000. So far, she’s racked up more than $46,000, with 21 days to go.
Each doll, according to PopSugar, will come with with three natural hair essentials: a miniature Denman brush, styling cream, and a spray bottle.
“I’m creating Angelica to let girls know that they are beautiful. Our girls need to see a reflection of their own unique beauty. It’s time for our young girls to have a new standard.” Sweeting said.
