‘We spotted a gap in the market’
When her three-year-old daughter asked if she could get long blonde hair like her dolls, Khulile Vilakazi-Ofosu decided to do something about the lack of diversity in the toy industry.
rowing up, business partners Caroline Hlahla and Khulile never had dolls that looked like them. They therefore had nothing to affirm to them that they were beautiful in their black skin. ‘So when my daughter, who’s now five, asked me to make her hair long, straight and blonde “just like her Barbie’s”, it upset me,’ Khulile explains. ‘What saddened me most was that she has beautiful, thick, strong Afro hair, but couldn’t see that because none of the dolls she played with looked like that.’
The two women identified the need for black dolls with natural hair that could be washed, conditioned, styled and treated like real Afros. So they began creating dolls with features that resembled the different races within South Africa’s Rainbow Nation. ‘We did this with the purpose of helping little girls love and celebrate who they are. The range includes Indian, coloured and mixed-heritage dolls. To increase diversity and representation, and because of the demand, we added dolls with albinism and vitiligo,’ they explain.
‘One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting funding and finding a manufacturer who believed in
