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Radiologist In Love With Bratz (Part II) By: Xie "Cindy" Qing, The Shanghai Bund Pictorial
Since their origination seven years ago, Bratz totally attracted her: A 32-year-old from Pennsylvania named Robyn Barnette, who lives her life daily as a radiologist. Barnette purchased her first two Bratz dolls at Wal-Mart in July 2004. Three years later, she owns over 100 Bratz dolls and even established a website called Bratz Heaven. The website averages over 500,000 hits per month and has often reached as high as 2.5 million hits. In an interview with The Shanghai Bund Pictorial, Barnette explains that there are Bratz fans from all over the world — including England, Australia, and the United States. "My friends think I'm a little insane doing what I do with Bratz," Barnette says. Barnette would seem like the type of person who is a tomboy. For instance, her background is in science. She also likes rap and R&B music; enjoys playing video games on her Sony PlayStation 2 video game console; and loves reading fantasy novels such as "Harry Potter" and "The Lord Of The Rings." Most importantly, she believes that individual success is not determined by the way the you look, but by the way you look within yourself. It's this same theory that she relates with the Bratz dolls she loves.
There was one instance where a woman saw her photographing a Bratz doll, and the woman asked her where she could purchase these dolls. "If my photos can inspire people to purchase a Bratz doll, I know that I did my job." Regarding the war between Bratz and Barbie, Barnette accused conservative parents' views about Bratz as the reason why Bratz doesn't sell well in Pennsylvania and the northeast portion of the United States. "Parents are not willing to show their children these Bratz dolls....they insist that Bratz are like street walkers. Bratz inspired me to be myself and not someone you dislike. "Parents are usually opposed to buying Bratz for their children," added Barnette, "because they see Bratz as girls on the street corner with sexy clothes and thick makeup. They brainwash their children these false stories about Bratz. Bratz doesn't inspire children to become a doctor, a lawyer, or a politician." Barnette acknowledged that the Bratz culture does not encourage children to "become this" or "become that." "Bratz encourages children to become themselves, regardless of what society thinks, and regardless of how they look. If Bratz look like girls from an urban setting, then that's what they are. At least they don't try to imitate that type of environment — unlike what happened to Flavas, a Barbie product from Mattel that tried to compete with Bratz, but failed."
"If you have any other news about Bratz, don't forget to tell me," she adds. And as for her website Bratz Heaven, everything on her website — from the webpages to her photography, to even her fan fiction — was done by her. "I believe if you want to create it, it's best to create it personally." | |
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Copyright © 2005-2008 Bratz Heaven. All Rights Reserved. | ||
Barnette enjoys photographing her Bratz dolls in open spaces — including forests and trees, botanical gardens, or out on the streets and sidewalks of any place she goes. "I usually choose cloudy days or sunrise or sunset, because the light creates shadows on the dolls' faces."
Barnette feels as though she is an ambassador for Bratz. She continues to purchase Bratz and often goes back to Wal-Mart to see if a new shipment of Bratz dolls arrived. Besides Wal-Mart, she also goes to other stores and searches for Bratz through online shopping and Internet auction websites, "because you might find some Bratz product there that's no longer available, but is a very valuable collector's item."