Doll:Ballet Star Dora

Dora the Explorer, the central character of an animated TV series aimed at a preschool audience, first aired on the Nickelodeon cable network in 2000. A seven-year-old Latina, Dora spent each episode traveling or exploring new places and engaging the viewing audience in locating lost or stolen objects, solving riddles, and playing games. The series has successfully aired for nearly 15 years, and it has inspired Dora dolls, toys, books, games, clothing, and consumer goods. In 2009, Nickelodeon and Mattel, Inc. decided to give Dora a makeover, intending to hold on to Dora's fans as they grew up. The companies presented the new Dora as a slimmed down, fashionably forward tween with lush, long-hair, a hip attitude, and The tween Dora incensed parents even though Mattel and Nickelodeon at first tried to keep the new Dora confined to online play and merchandise that preschoolers were less likely to see.