Bratz
Bratz is an American fashion doll and media franchise created by former Mattel employee Carter Bryant for MGA Entertainment, which first introduced in Spring 2001. Bratz continued to be popular during the early 2000s.
The four original 10-inch dolls were released on May 21, 2001 — Yasmin, Cloe, Jade, and Sasha — with Meygan being added to the group in 2002 as a fifth member. They featured almond-shaped eyes adorned with eyeshadow adding lush and big glossy lips. Bratz reached great success with the expansion to spin-offs, including Bratz Kidz, Bratz Boyz, Bratz Babyz, Bratzillaz, and a media franchise consisting of discography and adaptations into a TV series, a web series, a live-action film and video games. Global sales of the entire franchise grossed $2 billion in 2005 and by the following year, the brand had about 40 percent of the fashion-doll market.
The Bratz doll lines have provoked controversy in several areas from their stylized proportions to fashion-forward clothing, capitalizing closely on pop culture trends. Since the brand's launch in 2001, franchise distributor MGA Entertainment got embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute with its rival Mattel over the rights to its design, which ended in 2011 with MGA as the victors. Related litigation is ongoing in a lawsuit by MGA alleging Mattel's theft of trade secrets.
MGA has paused the Bratz brand since the onset of the litigation and rebranded it several times throughout its lifespan, with the first of those coming in 2010 after Mattel's first lawsuit, only to return later that year to commemorate the brand's 10th anniversary. In 2013, Bratz changed to have taller bodies, an all-new logo, and branding, and continued through 2014, in an effort to return the brand to its roots. As a result, none of the 2014 product line was made available in North America.
In July 2015, Bratz relaunched a second time for 14 years with new doll lines and introducing a new main character, Raya, to the first-era lineup from its 2001 launch as well as a new slogan and website design. The bodies were changed to be 10" tall again, but with new bodies and head molds. These dolls were met with negative reactions from fans, as the brand was more oriented towards younger kids rather than preteens and teens like the previous dolls. Due to the poor reception and sales, the dolls were once again discontinued in 2016.
In Fall 2021, Bratz released reproductions of the first edition Bratz dolls from 2001 and the popular Rock Angelz collection from 2005 to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Since then, Bratz have continued to reproduce several dolls and collections from the early 2010s, as well as produce brand new doll lines for the first time in almost a decade.
Products and history
Though Bratz dolls fared poorly at their May 21, 2001 debut — mostly due to the long-held monopoly by the Mattel-staple Barbie — their popularity increased the following Christmas. In the first half-decade since debut, 125 million products were sold worldwide, and, in 2005, global sales of Bratz and Bratz products grossed over $2 billion. In 2006, a toy-industry analyst indicated Bratz had captured about 40% of the fashion-doll market, compared with Barbie's 60%. The competition was high with Barbies, but became more and more popular with time.In August 2010, MGA released its first Bratz dolls in a year to celebrate the 10th anniversary/first decadal anniversary of the franchise. In addition to two "comeback" collections, MGA also released 10 new female Bratz characters on October 10, 2010. Bratz Party and Talking Bratz were in Target, Toys "R" Us and Walmart stores.
In 2013, Bratz got a new logo and slogan, and the dolls all got new bodies with articulated arms, with a height to match its competitor Monster High while keeping their unique faces, and sporting brand new fashions. Only the four principal Bratz characters, alongside additions: Meygan, Fianna, Shira, Roxxi and Phoebe, have been made in the new bodies.
In January 2014, MGA revealed that Bratz would go on a country-based hiatus for a year in an attempt to rebuild the brand after an admittedly first relaunch in September 2010 to celebrate the brand's first decadal anniversary, resulting from the lawsuit against Mattel, which was met with decreased popularity. MGA Entertainment felt that it wanted to give the brand "the comeback it truly deserved".
In July 2015, Bratz relaunched a second time for 14 years with new doll lines and introducing a new main character, Raya to the debut lineup from its 2001 launch as well as a new slogan and website design. The bodies were changed to be 10" tall again, but with new bodies and head molds. These dolls were met with negative reactions from fans, as the brand was more oriented towards younger kids rather than tweens and teens like the previous dolls. Due to the poor reception and sales, the dolls were once again discontinued in 2016.
On May 20, 2017, MGA Entertainment CEO, Isaac Larian, announced a third relaunch of the brand in Autumn/Fall 2018, in addition to announcing a collaboration with fashion designer Hayden Williams. Since Black Friday of 2018, the new set of Bratz Collector dolls designed by Hayden Williams were officially released and sold exclusively through Amazon online.
In September 2018, a new line of dolls titled "Bratz Collector" were designed by fashion illustrator Hayden Williams and released exclusively on Amazon online. The brand featured closely resemblance to the original 2001 doll line. In June 2021, for its 20th anniversary, Bratz released near-replicas of the debut dolls from its 2001 launch.
Bratz turned 20 years old in 2021.
In July 2023, Bratz announced a new partnership with celebrity Kylie Jenner. On August 1, 2023, Bratz released a limited-time Mini Bratz x Kylie Jenner collection. The collection features a range of Kylie's famous looks with the promise of a "full line" of Kylie dolls released on October 1 as reported by MGA Entertainment manufacturer.
To celebrate the Mean Girls film's 20th anniversary, Paramount collaborated with MGA Entertainment to feature Cady and the Plastics as limited-edition Bratz dolls. The collaboration collection released each character on separate dates throughout October 2024, with Cady on the 3rd, Regina on the 17th and Karen and Gretchen on the 31st.
On May 21, 2025, Bratz released an anniversary doll of Jade, "Bratzaversary", as a collector's edition to celebrate its 24th anniversary. It was released on the Bratz website and the next day on the Amazon and Target websites.
Controversies
The parental group Dads and Daughters were upset at the marketing of the Bratz Secret Date collection. The dolls were packaged with a Bratz girl in the right half of the box — either Cloe, Yasmin, Jade, Meygan, or Nevra — and matched with a mystery Boyz doll behind the door on the left. A window showing the doll's feet would provide a clue to which Boyz doll it was, especially important in the quest for a rare Bryce doll, available in only one of every 24 boxes. The group complained that the dolls' marketing was encouraging young girls to sneak out of the house and go on blind dates with strangers. It also took issue with accessory champagne bottles and glasses, but these were later confirmed to be smoothie bottles. MGA later renamed the collection to Bratz Blind Date.On December 21, 2006, the National Labor Committee announced that the factory workers behind Bratz dolls in China have labored for 94½ hours a week, while the factory paid only $0.515 an hour. The cost of labor per doll was $0.17. The retail price for a single doll ranges between $9.99 to $22.99, depending on the included items and specific retailer.
The allegations in the report describe practices found at many Chinese factories producing name-brand products for export. They include required overtime exceeding the legal maximum of 36 hours a month, forcing workers to stay on the job to meet stringent production quotas and the denial of paid sick leave and other benefits. The report shows copies of what it says are "cheat sheets" distributed to workers before auditors from Walmart or other customers arrive to make sure the factory passes inspections intended to ensure the supplier meets labor standards. It said workers at the factory intended to go on strike in January 2007 to protest plans by factory managers to put all employees on temporary contracts, denying them legal protection required for long-term employees.
After the announcement, MGA Entertainment CEO, Isaac Larian sent a statement on December 24, 2006, via email to a dedicated franchise fansite, Bratz World, and another two days later to Playthings magazine stating that the information is false and the company is not familiar with the company named in the report and MGA uses "first-rate factories in the Orient" to make its goods, besides Mattel and Hasbro. Larian said that he never heard about the news or of "the organization who is behind this negative and false campaign immediately prior to the last holiday shopping weekend."
In 2007, concerns over the body image and lifestyle the Bratz dolls allegedly promoted were raised by the American Psychological Association after it established its Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. In its published report, it cited concern over the adult-like sexuality the Bratz dolls allegedly portray. Another study found that for young African-American girls, the dolls' racial diversity was a more salient variable during play than their sexualized outfits. The controversy over alleged oversexualization of Bratz dolls for young girls was alluded to in a 2007 episode of Boston Legal titled "Guise n' Dolls."
Bratz were not the only dolls to be criticized in this report, which highlighted not only toys but also other products and the wider media. In the UK, a Bratz spokesman defended the toy line, saying that "it is consumed by 8+-year-olds" and "are aimed at the preteen and teen market", adding that the dolls were considered for "female consumers at ages 10 to 18", with the focus on the dolls while on looks was not on "sexualization" and that "friendship was also a key focus" of Bratz dolls.
The spokesman quoted Dr. Brian Young of the University of Exeter, saying "parents may feel awkward but I don't think children see the dolls as sexy. They just think they're pretty." Isaac Larian, in comments given to the BBC, said that the report was a "bunch of garbage" and that the people who wrote it were "acting irresponsibly".
In line with the launch of the new line of Kylie dolls, Bratz fans questioned the choice of Kylie as their first celebrity collaborator. Others did not like the skin tones on the Kylie dolls, implying they were too dark as compared to Kylie's skin tone.
In 2024, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of International Women's Day, a number of celebrities had their likeness turned into Bratz dolls, including Chappell Roan, Normani, Miley Cyrus and the late Sinéad O'Connor.