My Scene

My Scene was Mattel's answer to Bratz. MGA Entertainment's dolls were winning over the older girls who had begun to shun Barbie, and in the fall of 2002 Mattel launched My Scene, a Barbie-brand spinoff aimed at tweens. (A second counterattack, Flavas, a 2003 line of six hip-hop-style dolls, sold poorly and was killed within a year.) My Scene started with three friends who each came with two extra outfits: Barbie, Madison and Chelsea. Madison and Chelsea were named after New York City locations, and Nolee, Delancey, Ellis, Kenzie and three boys, Bryant, River and Hudson, soon joined them. The dolls kept slim Barbie-style bodies but got larger heads and their own face mold, with a small nose, wide cheekbones and big pouty lips. Their feet were large shoes, like Bratz, but they could still wear regular Barbie shoes.

The resemblance to Bratz was the point, and it caused trouble. In a February 2006 article, The New York Times said My Scene's "exaggerated lips and bulging, makeup-caked eyes once again evoked its new rival and provoked a lawsuit from MGA." MGA had filed that suit on April 13, 2005, accusing Mattel of copying Bratz's multi-ethnic looks, fashions and packaging. That became part of a years-long legal war between the two companies. The same Times article said My Scene had done far better than Flavas but showed no sign of slowing Bratz.

The line kept reinventing itself. Starting with the 2003 "Hanging Out" dolls, Mattel packed DVDs with the toys, and three My Scene films aired on Nickelodeon. The biggest, My Scene Goes Hollywood (2005), had Lindsay Lohan voicing herself, and she got her own doll. In mid-2006 Barbie herself was dropped from My Scene in favor of a new character, Kennedy. The 2007 "Growing Up Glam" dolls, which got taller and developed breasts when a key in the back was turned, drew controversy. Mattel stopped selling My Scene in the U.S. in 2008 and ended the line worldwide in 2011. In 2024 it reissued Barbie, Chelsea and Madison as collector dolls.