“I can remember one time she literally came home in tears. She went to all these stores and she couldn’t find dolls that really represented our little girls.”
That’s what Trent Daniels, a businessman from Houston, Texas said inspired him to create a line of ethnic-looking doll babies for his girls and yours.
Daniels was further shocked when he did his own research. He noticed the stores had hundreds of different white dolls; but when it came to ethnic dolls, there was only a scattering and the quality was poor.
This dad found that so unacceptable he decided to do something about it. In 2011 he created “The One World Doll Project” line – an assemblage of high quality dolls of diverse ethnic persuasions such as African-American, African native, Asian (and south Asian), and Hispanic. And to further demonstrate the differences within the races, he made sure his dolls reflected real-life variations.
“My daughters all have different skin tones,” Daniels said. His dolls have different skin tones as well, as well as slight differences in the head molds.
In the process of creating the dolls, Daniels was confronted with another ‘real-life’ situation. With most consumers’ unhealthy fascination with everything thin, he says even little girls won’t buy heavier dolls.
“Unfortunately as far as the market is concerned, a heavier weight doll does not sell as well,” he admits.
The One World Doll Project has grown exponentially since 2011 though. Daniels’ dolls only brought in $3,000 dollars that year compared to nearly $120,000 in 2014. The company is positioned to bring in their first million this year.
Daniels “One World Doll Project” dolls are currently on sale at 200 HEB stores and 3,000 Walmart stores. The company recently announced that Amazon.com placed a first order of their “The Pretty Girls” dolls as well.
And in 2016, they will sell at Target and Toys R Us.
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