Frobelles, the UK’s first Afro-hair championing dress up game, founded by London-based mother Yvonne Ottley and daughter Alyssa (now 12), is launching in the US this week, taking its mission of educating and empowering curly-coily haired kids to the next level.
The game is fun, educational, and was created as an empowering solution to a problem, as lack of representation in the content consumed by young children can really damage their self-esteem – Alyssa was just 6 years old when she asked her mum why none of her game characters had Afro hair like hers.
Yvonne said: “Children naturally want to see themselves in the games they play, it’s a part of how they start to form their identities. I spent a good while looking for games that had diverse characters with Afro hair, but it was really slim pickings… What I found was either the characters were black but had little to no afro-hair options, or in the case of a lot of games, afro hair styles were being depicted in a culturally appropriated way.”
According to a study by Curry’s PC World, only 2% of game designers in the US are African American / African / Afro-Caribbean, which means that black characters are often underrepresented or misrepresented. It’s also sadly not a surprise when you consider the levels of discrimination against natural Afro hair in adulthood, as has been reported recently – this is particularly the case in the workplace.
A study by Dove found that Black women’s hair is two-and-a-half times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional, and that Black women are 80% more likely to change their natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work.
This is why it’s vitally important we reinforce this idea of beauty, teach young girls how to care for their hair, and provide representation in a bid to foster a more positive, inclusive, and diverse future.
Yvonne said: “I have some graphic design experience, so I made a comment to Alyssa that we should create our own game – and of course she leapt at the opportunity. I started to think I’d bitten off more than I could chew!”
Yvonne continued: “Together, we sat at the table and brainstormed three main characters for our dress up game: Coco, Kelli and Krista, all with beautiful Afro hair that could be styled in a variety of ways, including Puffs, Fulani braids, and Bantu knots. We then started to design an extensive wardrobe and worked with an illustrator to bring the characters to life, before enlisting the help of a freelance app developer.”
Yvonne added: “Alyssa represents the demographic of girls who want to see themselves in the games they play, so her opinion, feedback, attention to detail, and steer on many decisions has been instrumental – she even did the voiceover on the game, and her friends were the perfect testbed.”
Just a few years after coming up with the idea over the kitchen table, Frobelles has its own fan club, regular offline events, has surpassed 100,000 downloads, has two Black History Month campaigns with the Apple AppStore under its belt, a campaign with GooglePlay, national press coverage, and inclusion in the Startups 100 for 2024.
Not only this, Frobelles was shortlisted for both the DEI and Young Entrepreneur Awards, and Alyssa has just won the Young Entrepreneur Award at the FSB Celebrating Small Business Awards 2024, which just goes to show that neither age nor marginalisation are barriers to turning dreams into reality.
Frobelles isn’t just a game anymore, it’s a bustling community with sisterhood at its heart, and with its new “story mode,” it also teaches children how to look after their Afro hair, how to style it, how to do their own skincare, and how to get ready for school each day, as sadly, not every child has someone to dedicate the time in busy day-to-day life.
Yvonne and her “mini-CEO,” Alyssa, didn’t want to just provide representation on a surface level, but offer a safe, positive, diverse, and empowering space, which also has an element of education – and now its launching in the US, with other territories, such as Africa, in its sights.
Yvonne said: “It’s incredible to see how the Frobelless community has grown, and how active and engaged it is, so we’re really excited to see how our sisterhood evolves as it expands to the US.”
Yvonne added: “As the brand continues to grow, we remain 100% committed to fostering inclusivity, empowering young minds, and proving that if you can dream it, you can do it – wherever you happen to live, and whatever age you happen to be.”
The journey from a simple question about representation, to the creation of Frobelles, underscores the power of determination, and the impact that even a small initiative can have on challenging societal norms.
- Amelia Jenkins