Older Dora - Part 3

I've written, briefly, twice before about Nickelodeon's plans to update Dora the Explorer by creating an older Dora to appeal to girls from 5-8. Here's my entry from August 2008 and again from February, when Nick and licensor Mattel unveiled the character's new look. And, by the way, here is the image that is circulating the Web under that banner (I'll optimistically assume it's legitimate, but even if not it's probably a step towards what the finished character design will look like):


Controversy continues to broil, as far as I know. I haven't checked lately for blog entries and upset mothers and things of that nature, but here is at least one article from April that I've been meaning to link to since I read it back then. 

My thoughts haven't evolved too much in the passing months. I think there's great potential for good or bad, and the property could go either way. The bad potentialities are obvious and are the very issues that have upset parents: that the new character will reinforce negative stereotypes for girls and will thereby diminish their potential. In other words, the new Dora will focus on superficial qualities like appearance and fashion that many parents of girls, myself included, wish would be entirely eradicated from the lives of children and teenagers. So this Dora could be leading kids--they're not even "tweens" yet, and that in itself is a term I distrust as an attempt to age up kids too soon (in my book an eleven-year-old is still a child)--down the path of the Dark Side. 

But the good side has some pretty intense potential, especially given the penetration of the current show (which will continue, with its merchandising intact, by the way) and the empowering components of its curriculum. I know Dora is often criticized, as on the famous Saturday Night Live skit, for encouraging passivity and subjugation--bossing kids about--but the whole point of preschool programming is to encourage self-sufficiency in children. As an interactive show, Dora takes that about as far as you can by really giving strong prompts to children to help them get Dora's questions right and feel empowered in helping her achieve her quests. Take that same commitment to empowerment and raise it up to the older age group and you can have something very needed. The older kids get, on up to adolescence, the harder it is to create shows with curriculum that they will actually watch. If Nick can add the new Dora, as a television show and not just a licensing endeavor, to their programs for 5-8 year-olds, then that will strengthen the bridge for carrying curriculum over into young adulthood. She has the star charisma to be able to pull that off more than any original series. So that's what I hope to see happen: all the good possibilities fulfilled and all the negative ones circumvented. I hope Mattel avoids making her into a dress-up doll--her head's the same size as the Bratz--and Nickelodeon makes a show with a great hook and curriculum for older kids.