5 On Your Side

Mom questions suggestive details of L.O.L. Surprise! dolls

A Triangle mother is outraged that dolls her 5-year-old daughter received as a gift features lingerie, fishnet stockings and heavy makeup.

Posted Updated

By
Monica Laliberte
, WRAL executive producer/5 On Your Side reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — A Triangle mother is outraged that dolls her 5-year-old daughter received as a gift features lingerie, fishnet stockings and heavy makeup.

L.O.L. Surprise! dolls are extremely popular with girls ages 3 and up. One version is a roughly 3-inch doll with multiple accessories, all individually wrapped in multiple layers of tissue paper and tucked away inside a plastic ball.

Kids appear to love the process of unraveling it all, but some moms describe the dolls as "sexualized."

"You open it, and the doll is wearing provocative lingerie," Jessica Arner said. "One had, like, jewels painted on its body and, you know, a little bra, a lacy bra, and I just – I opened it and was shocked."

Arner’s daughter got Na! Na! Na! Surprise backpack play sets as a gift. Na! Na! Na! and L.O.L. are related toy lines.

"One had the fishnets all the way up," Arner said.

Then, another gift arrived, named Coco Von Sparkle, in a sparkly bra and fishnets.

"My jaw dropped, and I gasped," Arner said. "I called my husband [and] took a picture. I’m like, 'This is so out of control. Look at what we just got.'"

Outrage over the L.O.L. dolls exploded last summer after a mother posted on Facebook what she discovered about some of the dolls when they were put in ice water.

"That’s got tape around her privates that says, 'Caution,'" the upset mom said in the post.

At the time, multiple stores stopped selling them. But they continue to line the toy aisles at many retailers.

MGA Entertainment, which makes the dolls, didn't respond to 5 On Your Side’s questions.

But the company previously said, "L.O.L. Surprise! is a fashion-forward doll brand designed to be fun and expressive."

The L.O.L. Boy Series, which is somewhat anatomically correct, has also raised concerns among parents.

MGA added in its statement that the company has "implemented comprehensive corrective measures to our design and approval process while ensuring the essence of the brand is kept intact.”

MGA is the same company behind the popular BRATZ dolls, which also have been criticized as being sexualized.

With the holidays ahead, the L.O.L. dolls are expected to be big sellers.

Arner said she wants others to be aware of what she's learned.

"They think they’re these cute, fun, little dolls, but then when you open it up and start to look at the details, it’s this whole other thing that I don’t think people are aware of," she said. "Sometimes you buy toys for your kids and you forget about them, and they go off and play with them in the room. You don’t think about it. So, it’s just good to know about."

"Little girls don’t wear fishnets. That kind of vibe from a toy, I don’t want anything like that in our house," she added.

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