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Bratz creates dolls that look like real girls in response to eight-year-old’s letter

A Florida girl's dream of playing with Bratz dolls that actually look like her has finally come true.

Eight-year-old Angelina Giani of Boca Raton, Fla. owns about 30 of the dolls, which are known for their heavy makeup, lengthy legs and flowing blond hair. As much as she loves her Bratz, Giani recently noticed a problem -- none of her dolls look like her.

"They have blonde hair... and they're like very, very tall," Giani tells news station WPTV.

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An avid artist, Giani got to work drawing her own versions of the dolls, giving them less makeup, stylish bob haircuts and longer dresses and jeans. She shipped off her drawings to MGA Entertainment, the makers of Bratz dolls, along with a custom letter asking the major to company to make dolls that looked more like her.

"We were really, really moved by her," Bratz brand manager Leyla Kashani says of her reaction when she received the package. "At her young age, making these designs and these patterns was right in line with our messaging -- we've always been about what real girls are wearing, what real girls are doing."

Kashani was so moved, in fact, that she had her designer bring Giani's drawings to life, creating three custom-made dolls that matched the eight-year-old's sketches.

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Four weeks later, Giani received a parcel in return from the Bratz manufacturers -- inside were nestled three dolls, near-exact replicas of the drawings she'd sent away.

"I never knew they were going to respond, I didn't think they would take her seriously," says her mother Rosiana Giani, who treated her daughter's letter as more of a writing exercise than anything else. “It felt kinda cool, and I felt proud.”

Angelina says that while she feels special to have such rare dolls, she hopes that someday her custom-made creations will be sold on shelves so that other girls can have dolls that look like them, too.

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This isn't the first time a major doll manufacturer has responded favourably to requests for more diverse dolls which better reflect their market.

Last year, Mattel created a collection of cancer-stricken bald Barbie dolls, inspired by a four-year-old girl from New York who no longer felt like a "princess" after her hair fell out. The company has also been steadily adding to their Dolls of the World collection every year with a new cultural doll represented.

Also last year, the doll company American Girl announced it would be adding allergy-free lunches and hearing aids to some of their dolls, and that's in addition to the wide array of skin, hair and eye colours already available.

What are your thoughts on the greater diversity of dolls now available? Tell us in the comments below.