Neha Chauhan Woodward has an MBA from Stanford too.
AB Wire
An Indian American graduate of Harvard University Neha Chauhan Woodward, from Staten Island, New York, has come up with a new series of seven dolls – including an Indian American doll Anjali – based on girls she grew up with, through a startup toy company called Willowbrook Girls.
Woodward, who has an MBA from Stanford too, has given each of the seven dolls unique personalities, which girls can relate to. The Willowbrook Girls are diverse, ambitious, opinionated, and smart, she says. On the Kickstarter campaign page, where she hopes to raise $30,000 to cover production costs, Woodward notes that her goal is to “introduce characters that celebrate girls for their brains, talents, and leadership.”
Woodward explains: “We want to give girls a different perspective on their gender identity relative to traditional dolls by exposing them to relatable female characters with career ambitions that include ones in which women are underrepresented. Our dolls are not “girl coders” or “girl presidents”—they’re coders, class presidents, and so much more. We want girls to embrace what they already know is in them. The Willowbrook Girls serve as an example of seven girls who do just that.”
In an article, Bustle magazine wrote of the startup: “From Cara, the first doll produced in full, who is half-Latina and wants to be a CEO when grows up, to Rory, who taught herself how to code and finds a similar solace in choreographing dances for her friends, these dolls are providing more than entertainment; they’re fighting against stereotypes, and providing girls the tools to shatter glass ceilings. You know, like women holding less than five percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies, or women comprising 14 percent of engineers in the work force. Those kinds of glass ceilings.
“In addition, Chauhan Woodward has made a concerted effort to create a friend group with a diverse array of ethnicities and backgrounds: Anjali is Indian-American, Maya is Colombian, Mackenzie is African-American, and Perry is Asian-American. Fun fact: Should Chauhan Woodward’s Kickstarter campaign succeed, Anjali and Perry will be the only Indian-American and Asian-American dolls with their own stories available in today’s toy market.”
Silive.com quoted Woodward saying: “The toys I played with had such an impact on me, but they weren’t a great reflection of me or my friends, who were so smart and so diverse in their interests and backgrounds. I knew we needed to do better.” She lives now in Manhattan with her husband.
Woodward says the idea came to her while she was a Stanford MBA student — a degree she pursued after studying economics at Harvard and then working as an investment banking analyst at JPMorgan.
“Next door to the coffee shop I studied in was a very popular doll store,” she said, declining to name names. “The emphasis on appearances, with these doll hair salons and doll tea parties that parents were expected to bring their kids to really upset me. If anything, this company had a huge opportunity to empower girls.”
After years of working for successful e-commerce sites like Blue Apron and Diapers.com, Woodward turned her tech marketing experience into a concept for a doll company that would more accurately entertain the modern girl: one who will lead businesses, make medical breakthroughs, build apps, reform policies — all embodied in Chauhan Woodward’s dolls.
When fully funded, each doll will have a corresponding book about their endeavors. The first one is about the Willowbrook girls starting a business at their school. The stories will give further depth to the characters, she told Silive.com
Growing up Indian American, Chauhan Woodward also wanted to make sure the dolls appeared diverse. It was something lacking in the toys she grew up with, and hasn’t gone unnoticed by young people of color, she said.
“A lot of girls I spoke to said that they wanted dolls that looked like them,” she said. “They wanted characters that were relatable. You have to see something to know that you can be it.”
Chauhan Woodward’s company marks a shift in recent years toward toy companies tackling gender equality. Hasbro says it will soon start manufacturing a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven. MagicCabin.com now makes dollhouses for boys. Lego has announced a “Stay at Home Dad” figurine.
And Super Bowl viewers will remember a commercial from 2014 for GoldieBlox promoting their toys, for girls, designed to develop early interest in engineering and confidence in problem-solving.