Jeez, Dora upgrade too sexy?

March 22, 2003

When Mattel and Nickelodeon released a silhouette of the new Dora earlier this month, the response was overwhelmingly negative. Parents feared a sexed-up version of the beloved tomboy with a bowl-cut hairdo. Mommy bloggers thought she looked more like a Britney Spears or a Lindsay Lohan than a wholesome role model; they started to joke about a drinking, smoking, pregnant streetwalker. "Did Mattel turn Dora the Explorer into a Tramp?" read one headline from The Huffington Post.

Nickelodeon and Mattel tried to console parents. "People care so deeply about this brand and this character," Leigh Anne Brodsky, president of Nickelodeon Viacom Consumer Products, told an Associated Press reporter. "The Dora that we all know and love is not going away."

The kids' channel and toy company say that as part of unrelated research, they found parents wanted a way to keep Dora in their children's lives and have their daughters move on to a toy that was age appropriate. "The idea is Dora for more girls," Brodsky told the AP. "The whole point was this was created because moms said help us.

And now Nickelodeon and Mattel are further assuaging the masses with a sketch of the soon-to-be-made-into-dolls tween. What do you think? Is she too sexy? The marketing department has already assured everyone that the top is a tunic and not a short dress, and they also claim that she's not wearing makeup even though her lips are lusciously pink. She's certainly got a cute figure and her hair is fabulous. (She probably doesn't use shampoo). Would you buy a doll for your kids?