My daughter has various dolls – Barbie, Cindy, some Phantom Menace Padme Amidalas, a Princess Leia, and a 90’s Storm (that I randomly found boxed at a local charity shop for £2). But I think she has found her favourite set of dolls yet – Lottie.
I’ve been aware of Lottie ever since they launched their Superhero Outfit Set in 2014. It was notable to me because a) it was a female superhero doll, and b) was designed by a six-year-old girl, who created ‘Super Lottie’ as part of a global competition. Any misgivings I may have had about the pink, pastel, and sparkles are pretty much wiped out by the fact this outfit was created by a little girl herself. This is exactly the kind of creativity we’re trying to encourage in our own daughter, and the Super Lottie design looks pretty cool anyway.
Lottie differs from other dolls in a number of ways. Her body shape is roughly that of a nine-year-old girl, as opposed to the Giraffe like proportions of Barbie. She doesn’t wear jewellery or makeup. She has a wide range of clothes and interests that kids can still relate to. If you want to buy your child princesses and fashion models, you’re already well served by the market. Lottie Dolls offer parents and children wanting something else a delightful alternative.
For this review, we selected a range of dolls and accessories that reflect my daughter’s interests, tastes, or curiosity. Our choices were Pirate Queen (plus accessories), Robot Girl (plus Busy Lizzie Robot), Stargazer (with telescope), as well as the aforementioned Superhero Outfit.
Each ‘Lottie’ comes with their own backstory or scenario, and while these are interesting – such as reading about female pirate Grace O’ Malley – the characteristics of each outfit/persona are really for us to define through play. So, ‘Robot Girl’ likes robots, and this helped us talk about science and engineering; ’Stargazer’ (inspired by a real life star loving little girl) is obviously into astronomy, and again that helps us talk about that. My daughter loves looking at the moon, and enjoys stories set in space, so this reinforces it. ‘Pirate Queen’ inspires adventure, and also supports the idea that all things pirate are for girls as well as boys. And ‘Super Lottie’? Well, my daughter knows superheroes are for girls (and boys too I guess), so again this reinforces our parenting approach in this genre.
I get accused, mostly by people who don’t know me very well, of denying my daughter ‘girly’ things, or trying to make her into a boy. That’s not true. I just object to the narrow vision of girlhood that commerce presents us with. While I’m of the mind that any toy is girly if a girl plays with it, these Lottie dolls help with framing different interests as ‘girly’, presenting us with a group of cute little girls who enjoy science, karate, ponies, and pirates! If you ever need to prove to someone that robots, superheroes, and pirates, can be ‘girly’ too – then just show them Lottie.
The thing I really love about this collection of Lottie dolls is that they support and reinforce so well our approach to raising our daughter. Lottie’s cool and quirky collection of clothing reflects my daughter’s own diverse wardrobe. We hope Lottie’s range of interests will also be mirrored in our daughter as she gets older.
What’s our favourite Lottie? While I love anything that involves girls and superheroes, my joint top pick is Pirate Lottie. Society still tends to categorise Buccaneer iconography as a boy’s look, and this demonstrates that girls make awesome looking pirates too. My daughter likes dressing as one but doesn’t see many other girls doing that too. By simply playing with her Pirate Queen Lottie, she is reinforcing her confidence in her decision to dress up as a pirate too.
Being interested in science and technology. Dressing as a pirate and a superhero. These Lottie Dolls can help inspire a new generation of girls to claim these traditionally boy interests as theirs too, and aspire to reach for the stars or sail the seven seas. Or simply to be happy with whatever you choose to be. In fact, her motto is ‘Be bold, be brave, be you’.
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Disclaimer: While I was not paid to write this piece, we did receive all the featured dolls and accessories free of charge.
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Man vs. Pink 
They are great, aren’t they? I got an Autumn Leaves Lottie for my daughter and the quality is very nice. She doesn’t play with it as much as I thought – preferring ponies and dinosaurs right now – but she’s interested in getting some more.
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We were straight on the lottie dolls as soon as I heard about them around a year ago. My girl’s got pirate girl lottie, but I’m planning on adding superhero lottie for her 3rd birthday – so much better than any more traditional alternative.
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I love this! This is what has always been hard for me to explain to people about the princess pink phenomenon. I didn’t want people shoving that stuff on my daughter. I have always felt that if she chose it herself I wouldn’t have an argument. My problem is people just randomly giving her babies and girl dolls as presents merely because she’s a girl!
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Big big fans of Lottie Doll, great dolls and great themed accessories too – massive fans in our house 🙂
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This is exactly the kind of doll I would buy for my future daughter. Children’s toys should lookmlike children for one, unlike those terrifying Bratz dolls… great post!
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What a wonderful idea for our girls today! Lottie has so many interests that would inspire little girls and not make her feel that looks are as relevant as her intelligence. I adore this product idea!
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We love these dolls, even though we’re yet to buy our first one. We only recently discovered them so have been poring over the website trying to choose a favourite!
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I use to play with Barbie, but I hated the clothes and often got her and Ken naked and let them swim in the bath with me. My mom even made clothes for them that I preferred. But the bodies weren’t right, specially for someone so young, was I meant to look like that when I grow up? Lottie is exactly what young kids are. A perfectly normal body shape and a mixture of hobbies and outfits for girly girls, tomboys and even girls who are into science or space. Best doll ever!
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We love these dolls and how great they are and what they promote with girls. I also love all of the careers and activities that are promoted thus far too!
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I learned about Lottie a few years ago. We have two of them so far and my little girls love them. I look forward to collecting more.
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I think they are a fantastic idea and I love that they have such a large range of Lottie dolls that I think really inspire and tell younger girls that they can be anything they want to be
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Rockabilly Lottie and Superhero Lottie are my fav’s
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love these dolls,I think they are ideal for children
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The lottie dolls are so cute and they seem to be very popular!
Great blog thankyou
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I have only recently become aware of the lottie dolls but I think that they are great, I like that they all have different themes. My daughters will be getting one each for christmas (I hope its not to early to mention the ‘C’ word!!!!)
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I can see how the play can be imaginative & positive.
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I love Lottie – the different themes are great, and the whole idea rocks. I find the market research behind Lottie really interesting too; Barbie, etc, came from little girls wanting to play at being grown up, but now maybe in a world where there’s so much pressure to be grown up maybe kids just want to be children for a bit…
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I’d never seen the Lottie dolls before this post, but am now defo going to look in to them for my daughter and niece. Me and my sister have had many discussions about dolls and how there was a real lack of relatable dolls that we’d be happy to let our girls play with, so this is perfect.
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I think they are great and better for children than normal dolls as they look more real and someone the child could aspire to be unlike other dolls like Barbie who are not so relatable to children.
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It’s nice to see a doll which looks like a little girl rather than a prostitute or porn star. It lets the child focus on what the doll does & enjoys rather than what she looks like.
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Love her! I think she is very true to life and shows children more about bieng a kid and exploring and playing rather than bieng a adult.
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Love the concept of Lottie and would be a great present for my great niece for her next birthday
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Thanks, great giveaway
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The Lottie Dolls are brilliant, will show girls (and boys) that its not about looks!!
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I love these dolls and my 6 year old daughter does too. She was told at school that she must be a tomboy because she doesn’t like Barbies… Well guess what, she likes Lottie!
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They’re just absolutely adorable! Can’t wait to own one! 😀 My favorite has to be Finn the little boy.
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My daughter and I are huge Lottie fans. Finally a doll that can inspire little girls imaginatively and aspirationally while reflecting the girls themselves, not some pop star or other “grown up” figure.
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I’m loving this new Rockabilly Lottie doll. It’s a must-ave for Emily’s 5th birthday!!!!
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We love Lottie Dolls! We have Robot Lottie, and while my daughter enjoys her simply because she’s so cute and came with a COOL ROBOT, I like her because she has real proportions and fun, creative clothes and accessories beyond the typical “hairbrush, puppy, glittery dress” that one typically finds.
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Love these Lottie dolls and I just love the pirate doll and outfit.
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My daughter has the stargazer lottie doll and she loves her, it inspires imagination and a lot of detail has gone into her appearance and accessories
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We absolutely love Lottie dolls in our house & have three plus outfits & accessories. Love everything about them including how well they are made & easy to hold & dress. Looking forward to introducing Finn to our collection too so they can go on adventures together!
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Lottie dolls are lovely and unique in their different characters. Perfect for girls
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Stargazer would be a perfect ‘Lottie’ for my granddaughter. It would fit right into her home full of sci-fi films, books and gadgets.
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Awesome doll. It’s important to teach our children to express themselves. Loving the 50s vibe too…
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These dolls are such a great Idea. It’s so important for girls to have positive roll models. It’s great that dolls are seen in glasses, and I’m really impressed at the way the company educates through play.
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We are expecting our first daughter and constantly we wonder what kind of toys she is going to play with. It is so sad that here in Mex we still have the traditional Barbie and you can’t really see toys like these. We really want to raise our girl outside of the gender stereotypes, that’s why your blog has inspired us a lot. Congrats and thank you for encourage your daughter to be whatever she wants to and thank you for being such a good example for this new generation of parents.
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Hello ^^
They’re really cute! I would love to have one!
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and they are great for my grandSONS too
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im ok with my daughter playing with barbies, iv never liked the bratz dolls, i think they are terrible! but these look great, intelligent, normal looking. i would be more than happy for my child to play with this.
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I love the fact that they are from different eras, beautiful clothes and not too over the top
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These dolls are really cool. I love that they encourage girls to be different and not stereotypical glanmed up Barbie’s.
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I love the variety of dolls on their site. I think most children could find at least one that they identify with. And the child like proportions remind me of many of the dolls I liked growing up in the 80’s.
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A terrific range of dolls which shows adventurous and skilled girls as well as being darned cute.
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Lottie Dolls are so fab! I actually want to get some for my son but he hasn’t shown any interest in them, no matter how much I show him them online 😦 I love how they portray girls doing all sorts of things, wearing appropriate clothing and not wearing make up trying to look like they’re 18! Wish they were around when I was younger- I might have actually played with dolls x
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Lottie dolls look great – my daughter is now too old for dolls but had Barbies and all that pinkness – which she now hates, I hasten to add! Would love to introduce Lottie to my friend’s daughter.
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Lottie dolls are so varied,my grand-daughter has one who is into astrology and even has its’ own telescope.Baby dolls are fine when the child is very young but as they grow and develop so does their taste in dolls and there are so many varieties in the Lottie range that there is something for every one.
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I got an Autumn Leaves Lottie for my daughter and its very nice.
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I became aware of the Lottie dolls about six months ago. I think that they promote a more measured body image and the company have been very good at creating a range of dolls with a variety of interests.
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