Two Women Entrepreneurs Launch Dolls Collection To Encourage Black Girls To Embrace Their Natural Beauty
By Features Desk
Friday, May 19, 2017.
Business Partners Caroline Hlahla from London, UK, and Khulile Vilakazi-Ofosu, from South Africa, originally came together to build a Bounce Essentials, a customer-centric hair company that specialises in 100 percent natural textured extensions to suit the natural hair of women of African descent. However, they noticed that beyond the deeply personal connection that women have with their hair, the identities and confidence of their customers’ children became a conversation piece.
It was a personal experience in which Khulile’s daughter at age three – with the most beautiful, thick Afro – started wanting blond and flowing hair. This made the pair to start thinking of how they could address the hair issue amongst black girls. They identified the very real lack of black dolls with kinky Afro hair, sold in toy shops for parents of black and mixed heritage kids to buy. They decided to challenge the norm and came up with a quality beautiful dolls collection called “The Sibahle Collection” that would be representative of a children of African and Caribbean heritage.
The Sibahle Collection wants children to see the beauty of their skin, Sibahle is a Zulu word that means “We are beautiful”. The dolls in the Sibahle collection have features that resemble most African and Caribbean children’s facial and body features.
“We decided to do this, is because we want our children to know they are beautiful the way they are. We hope the doll’s hair will teach our children how to take care of their own natural hair from a young age and to love the skin that their in, ” Caroline Hlahla and Khulile Vilakazi-Ofosu said.
The women said their first doll under the collection is called Nobuhle, Buhle for short, which is a Zulu word that means “the one that represents beauty”.
“Her hair is the most distinguishing feature of this doll,” they said. “The child gets to experiment with the hair, wash it, care for it as their own hair. Up until recently, the European market attempted to fill the gap for black dolls with western dolls just painted black with hair nothing like the typical African kinky hair.”
The Sibahle Journey has not been an easy journey to embark on. When the duo first started they thought it would be much easier to find a production outlet but were outrightly rejected by potential manufacturers. The consistent response was that black dolls do not sell, or that black dolls are ugly. Despite being a huge shock these rejections made the pair even more determined to succeed. Since launching the brand, there have been an upsurge in interest, and the dolls have sold out twice. So much so that the two businesswomen are now looking for seed-funding to scale up the brand.
Caroline and Khulile have partnered with two local young clothing designers based in South Africa. One operates from her own garage and the other is a stay at home mother who sews from her own dining room table whilst her toddler plays on the floor. The designers now have reliable income from the Sibahle order and the pair want to use the dolls to create more jobs in South Africa to empower many more women. This is only the beginning for these amazing entrepreneurs and they say they plan to make their products global bestsellers..
Two Women Entrepreneurs Launch Dolls Collection To Encourage Black Girls To Embrace Their Natural B
