A woman’s group in Australia has adopted a Donegal doll as their mascot to be given to thousands of children Down Under.
The new Lottie doll is seen as a safe doll for Donegal children
Women’s Forum Australia say the Lottie doll is the perfect example for Australian girls because it is not sexualized.
The group, which represents tens of thousands of women, initially ordered a small consignment of the cute dolls.
But demand for Lottie has rocketed and now the group are importing more and more of the dolls.
Since money the group has import one thousand Lottie Dolls and more orders are planned.
Kristin Dooley, Managing Director of Women’s Forum, said Lottie is the perfect example which aims to represent young girls “as they really are.”
“We monitor the harmful sexualisation of women and girls and we picked up some reporting on the Lottie Doll and we really like what we saw.
“We know the harm the sexualisation of young girls and children can do.
“As well as pointing to the negative impacts of such dolls as Barbie and Bratz, we think it’s important to show positive alternatives and the Lottie Doll is just that.
“She’s fun, engaging and she’s modeled on the shape of a nine year old girls and she does fun things.
“We started with a small number but once the word got out there has been a huge demand for them,” said Ms Dooley.
Ballybofey businessman Ian Harkin, the Managing Director of Arklu, who manufacture the dolls, says the worldwide demand for Lottie has gone through the roof.
“As well as Australia, we have had an order this week for 900 dolls from Iceland and there are orders beginning to come in from Russia, Dubai, New Zealand and Canada.
“It shows there is a demand for a responsible doll and non sexualized doll out there,” said Mr Harkin.
The company has set up at the CoLab at LYIT and hopes to employ 20 people as demand for Lottie continues to grow.
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