Review and Giveaway: Friends Forever Girls Dolls

I have three daughters. Our house is full of pink. And purple. There are dresses and skirts. And some lace and ruffles too.

Oh yes, and dolls. Over the years we’ve had rag dolls, baby dolls, princess dolls, Barbie dolls, and dolls with pieces so tiny you have to squint to be able to tell what they are. Then there are the doll accessories – the strollers, and bassinets, playpens, cribs, high chairs, swings and strollers.

At times I’ve thought the girls have better ‘baby’ equipment than we did. 

As they’ve grown older, we’ve had to set limits and specify which dolls are ‘okay’ to play with and which ones are simply unacceptable. And they’ve been pretty good about abiding by those rules. And I’ve been glad that there are options out there for dolls that can be a positive experience for the girls to play and pretend with. Like the Friends Forever Girls.

What they are:

The Friends Forever Girls 18” dolls and related books include characters who each have different personalities but are all friends. The Girls live near each other in a US town in present day and deal with many of the issues elementary aged girls are dealing with, such as friendship, insecurity, jealousy, and responsibility.

The Girls were created by a mom – who was looking for “a high quality doll for my daughter that was fun to play with, that was dressed in hip but age-appropriate clothes, and that could be used as a tool to help build self-respect and foster responsibility.” Not able to find something already existing out there, she started her own company and the Friends Forever Girls were born.

There are currently four Friends Forever Girls, with two additional Girls coming soon. The existing friends include Marlee and Natalie (who have been best friends since they were little), Reina (who just moved to the neighborhood) and Nika. The two new friends will be Kristina and Kyleen. As a group the Girls are ethnically diverse and each has her own unique and special personality.

Each doll is modeled after one of the Friends Forever Girls characters, down to her personal style and accessories. They each come with a copy of the first Friends Forever Girls book, called “The First Day of Forever” – a chapter book that introduces three of the characters.

Thanks to Mom Blog Marketing, we received one of the Friends Forever Girls dolls, along with a copy of the book.

The doll that we were sent is Natalie, who is described as an athletic girl who has a pet fish instead of a dog or cat as she would like, because her dad and older brother are allergic. Natalie has long blonde hair and blue eyes, and comes dressed in track pants, tennis shoes, shirt, vest and carries a duffel bag.

Here’s my our take on them:

I started off by giving my six-year-old the book so that she would be familiar with (and excited about) the characters when she saw the actual doll. Trying to decide which of my daughters to give the doll to was a bit difficult, but was made easier since one of them was being punished at the time. So my middle daughter got to play with Natalie first and now they share her together.

The quality of the doll is amazing – the hair feels smooth and silky and came styled with a couple of small braids in it. Her vividly blue eyes have actual lashes, and her features are very delicate and realistic-looking. The clothes are also very high quality with incredible detail – even the side pocket on the track pants is real, to my daughter’s amazement:

Both of the older girls love playing with Natalie, and even my youngest wants to get in on the fun. We kept the box that the doll arrived in, and store her in there when she’s not being played with, so we can keep her in good shape. I’ve seen on the Friends Forever Girls website that you can purchase additional outfits for the dolls, but for now they’re having fun with taking off and putting on the vest accessory and having Natalie ‘carry’ all sorts of things in her duffel bag.

My six-year-old has finished the book, and I’ve been regaled with all kinds of information about the characters, how they know each other, and what they’re like. I love that the Friends Forever Girls are ‘role models’ that I am comfortable with my daughters emulating, and they simply love that the characters are fun and relevant to their own lives.

The bottom line:

The Friends Forever Girls dolls are high-quality, attractive and fun for girls once they outgrow the ‘baby’ dolls and are looking for toys that they can relate to more as they hit elementary school age. They are very appropriate in terms of how they dress and appear, and their behavior (through the books and website) also models ideals and values that are important to me. The Forever Girls™ Pledge probably says it best – the first letter of each line spells out ‘Butterfly’:

• Be the best I can be
• Use kindness and be fair
• Tell the truth
• Treat others the way I want to be treated
• Encourage my friends
• Respect myself and others
• Find the courage to do what’s right
• Listen to others, and remember…
• You can do it!

Where can you find them?:

You can purchase the Friends Forever Girls dolls, books and other accessories directly from their website at http://www.friendsforevergirls.com/categories.php. They are also available at select retail outlets as well, and the books can purchased on Amazon. The dolls cost $59 each (and come with a book). If you order before April 20th and use the coupon code “Spring” you’ll receive a free Girls Friends Forever T-shirt as well.

Would you like to try them?:

Courtesy of Mom Blog Marketing, I have the opportunity to offer the Friends Forever Girls doll of your choice to one lucky reader! If you have (or know) a school-aged girl who would love any of these dolls, here are the rules:

1. Enter by visiting the Friends Forever Girls site and leaving a comment here to let me know which doll you would choose if you win (and who you’d give it to). Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Wednesday, April 8th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. US entries only, please.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site(s) you chose (one extra entry per method).

So that’s a total of 7 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #127 as the winner:

Congratulations to Chris (no blog) who said, “I would love to win Reina for my niece. It’s sort of hard to find positive Latina dolls for her. It’s always nice to have a doll that resembles you.“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

After several unsuccessful attempts to contact Chris via e-mail, I am going to have to draw a new winner for this giveaway. This time the random number generator has chosen comment #206 as the winner:

Congratulations to kathy pease (no blog) who said, “i would give Reina to my daughter sia..shes so cute “! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.