I’m Neha, and I’m creating a line of dolls with characters that are smart, ambitious, and opinionated. Willowbrook Girls is a doll and story series that gives girls characters that they can see in themselves—girls who are both ordinary and extraordinary, and who are becoming leaders in their own right. We want to move away from the one-dimensional view of girls offered by most dolls, which focuses on appearance, and instead, introduce characters that celebrate girls for their brains, talents, and leadership.
Girls need characters like the Willowbrook Girls because they don’t otherwise exist in toys and media available today. We’re creating dolls and stories with depth. The characters are a group of seven friends in the fifth grade who are intelligent, goal-oriented, and outspoken. Each character has incredible ambition, just like the girls we all know.
Our seven characters are diverse not just in personalities, career ambitions, and interests, but also ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.
We’re changing things… and we’re excited.
Cara Morales-Burch is an aspiring entrepreneur who loves arts and crafts. She starts a business with the rest of the Willowbrook Girls that is inspired by her latest DIY project. Cara is half-Latina and enjoys learning about both of her cultural backgrounds. You’ll learn more about Cara in our first story, The Brookies Build a Business.
Our dolls are 18 inches and have soft bodies.
We’re empowering girls by offering strong role models in the Willowbrook Girls. The characters will inspire our next generation of leaders—the girls who will crush these staggering statistics:
Creating dolls with career ambitions was important to us. Our dolls aren’t here to tell girls what they can do. They’re here so they never doubt it.
We want to give girls a different perspective on their gender identity relative to traditional dolls by exposing them to relatable female characters with career ambitions that include ones in which women are underrepresented. Our dolls are not “girl coders” or “girl presidents”—they’re coders, class presidents, and so much more. We want girls to embrace what they already know is in them. The Willowbrook Girls serve as an example of seven girls who do just that.
Many of our best learning experiences when we were younger came from having a diverse group of friends who offered perspectives wildly different from our own. We’ve been disappointed in the lack of diversity in dolls. Willowbrook Girls is a modern doll line that better reflects reality, and features characters that are diverse in backgrounds, whether ethnic or socioeconomic.
Of note, Anjali, an Indian-American doll, and Perry, an Asian-American doll, will be the only dolls of their backgrounds, with their own stories, available in the toy market at launch. Other Willowbrook Girls include Mackenzie, who is African-American, Maya, who is Colombian, and Cara, who is half-Latina. We hope to continue to create diverse characters, each with her own voice and story. Giving each character a voice was extremely important to us, as we’ve seen that many doll brands give minority characters sidekick roles or stories full of stereotypes.
Diversity will continue to be an essential part of the brand as we grow.
We’ve created characters that are authentic to girls and live up to their ambition. Told from the perspective of each character, our stories are a way for readers to get to know the Willowbrook Girls.
In the first story, written by the fantastic Molly Donovan, we see how Cara inspires her group of friends to start a school business together. The Willowbrook Girls learn about teamwork and how their talents can be used to build the business. They ultimately decide to give their business a social mission.
The first few chapters of The Brookies Build a Business are currently available to preview for free online. We hope you enjoy reading!
We want to produce all seven of the Willowbrook Girls. If we reach our stretch goal of $200k, we’ll be able to ship even more characters by late fall.
We will offer kits that explore the career interests of each character. The kits will be designed in collaboration with the foremost leaders in each field and will include things like activities, skills-based learning, and stories of trailblazing women in these fields.
We see a future for Willowbrook Girls beyond the dolls. We’re just getting started… stay tuned!
Neha Chauhan Woodward is the Founder of Willowbrook Girls. Prior to Willowbrook Girls, she built her career in e-commerce, working at companies like Blue Apron, Diapers.com (Amazon), and DANNIJO. She started her career at JPMorgan. Neha has a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Neha named Willowbrook Girls after her elementary school, Public School 54, which was located on Willowbrook Road in New York.
Credits: Illustrations by ET Monjaraz, Doll photography by Sydney Paulsen, Doll clothes byLittle Gloriana, Patty Allen Designs, and Donna Designed
Over 20,000 people are following Willowbrook Girls’ start on Instagram. We’re so glad the story of seven incredible fifth graders is resonating with girls, boys, and parents alike.
We want to hear from you! Tell us what you think! We’re building a better doll for girls, and need your help to make it happen. Email us at info@willowbrookgirls.com.