Slim pickings for Barbie as a fuller-figured rival hits town

Barbie, the improbably thin doll that looks like a mascot for the cosmetic surgery industry, should start feeling a little jealous any day now. For a fuller-figured, older rival is proving a success within weeks of its launch in New York and London.

Emme is based on a 38-year-old size-16 American model of the same name, and her realistic proportions stand in stark contrast to Barbie's, which, if scaled up to human size, would measure 38-18-34. The brisk sales of the newcomer will be welcomed by campaigners against artificially slim body images as proof of the pent-up demand for a doll that looks like a real woman, as opposed to a silicon-enhanced waif.

So impressed has her creator, Robert Tonner, been with Emme's success that he is planning other dolls based on what Americans call "plus-size" models, including, possibly, a Sophie Dahl doll. He will also produce a low-cost toy "play" version next Spring. At present, Emme is available only as a collectors' doll, selling at $89 to $150 in the US, depending on accessories, and for £99 to £125 here. A smaller Emme, say industry experts, would test whether little girls want realistic-shaped dolls as much as their mothers in the collectors' market do.

Campaigners hope so, because for years they have said the "body fascism" of ultra-thin role models has caused teenage eating disorders and depression. It's a plausible opinion: a Psychology Today report said that within three minutes of looking at pictures of thin models, 70 per cent of women felt "depressed, guilty or ashamed". No wonder. Twenty years ago, models weighed only 8 per cent less than average women; last year the gap had widened to 23 per cent.

But the pendulum has begun to swing the other way, and Emme's sales are being hailed as part of this movement. There are more plus-size models. Body Shop had Ruby, a size-18 poster girl. Mainstream voices such as Anita Roddick's have spoken out against unrealistic body images, and there are now three American magazines devoted to plus-size women, including the just-launched Grace. The cereals giant Kellogg's has even run an ad for Special K which showed a thin model with the caption: "If this is beauty, there's something wrong with the eye of the beholder."

In Hamleys, the London toy store, last week there were warm welcomes for Emme's more realistic shape. Daemon Simpson, 47, a tourist from Zurich, said: "She's a real woman, as opposed to an idealist doll. It's a bold thing." Adelle Ragël, 23, a student from France, thought Emme had beautiful proportions. "It's more real. She represents the woman in the street, not the ideal woman."

Back in the States, Emme's 13-stone human alter ego continues her career as TV host, mother, businesswoman and campaigner on eating disorders. All in all, perhaps, a better role model than Barbie, who, for all her makeovers, remains the bimbo with the fixed grin.