Once upon a time (aka 2001), the DCP Toy team struggled to bring diversity to the doll lines. Tim Kilpin, the head of our team, challenged us to find a way to be more inclusive. It started with two strong candidates - Ariel’s World or Tinker Bell’s World - both were top selling characters even without new entertainment. But, Tink gave us open-ended possibilities. So, Dorota Kotarba-Mendez and I got to work! We designed our ethnically diverse fairies in line with each category of girls play patterns - and we made them magical! But, toy companies were understandably wary of characters without known stories. Thankfully, the incredible Disney Publishing group got involved and loved our fairies! And then… so did DisneyToon Studios! Silvermist and Rosetta stayed almost entirely the same from our original concepts through to the films - but, I love them all and what each group added to make them remarkable!
