Cartoon Network Doesn't Want Girls Watching Their Shows...*FACEPALM*

 Cartoon network doesn’t want to produce superhero cartoons for girls. They say girls don’t buy action figures.  Just Princess dolls. 

*FACEPALM*

I have to wonder what these idiots at Warner Brothers are smoking.

Clearly there’s a market for a girls’ action/fantasy/adventure series. I’ve seen it for 11 years when I present my Isis books to customers.

Women love superheroes. Girls love superheroes. I see a growing audience of women and girls at the comic cons. And they’re looking to buy more than just shirts or dress up as cosplayers.

From what I’ve seen at the toy store, girls do buy action figures. I remember many a time seeing a girl carrying a Pink Ranger, Xena or a Sailor Moon back in the day when I was at the toy store. I’ve even seen girls carrying Batgirls or Supergirls or Wonder Womans. Many times I’m in the toy store both boys and girls will go looking for a female character to complete a group of heroes.

Female action figures don’t sell. Only because American toy companies won’t manufacture them. Or make a serious effort to promote their characters.

Superhero Cartoons for girls won’t work. Only because TV executives only think of making dumbed down cutesy shows with pink sparkles and princesses.

I do remember a series called The Powerpuff Girls that came out in the late 1990’s early 2000s. Very popular. Had its own cereal. Everyone loved that show.

But unfortunately no action figures. Just like Static Shock, another popular series that came out around the same time. Seems like anything that isn’t white or Male doesn’t sell with today’s executives because they don't know how to market to girls.

When it comes to girls, most American Toy manufacturers and TV executives are still stuck in the past thinking about the Princess Leias and Wonder Womans that rotted on toy store shelves in the late 1970s and 1980s. Not understanding that cool female characters like the Pink and Yellow Ranger, Elisa Maza, Xena, Nefertina, Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane Starfire, Raven, and Hawkgirl, changed the way American boys thought of female characters back in the 1990s and the 2000s.

Over the last 20 years female characters have become more complex and multi-dimensional in superhero and fantasy/ sci-fi animated programming. They’re no longer damsels in distress or the girlfriend. They have their own stories. And sometimes they’re written so strongly they can carry their own series.

So why not give girls them a superhero cartoon or two?

The demographics clearly are there and show this is a growing market. 51% of the population in America is female. Women control the purse strings in more households today. And it’s a known fact girls and women buy products faster than men. Money in the bank for any smart businessperson.

So why not produce a cartoon with a female lead? Or an action figure line?

Here’s a fact: Two Monster High exclusive dolls outsold both Shazam and Swamp Thing at San Diego Comic Con, TWO YEARS IN A ROW. Polly Pocket She-Ra exclusive outsold Swamp Thing at San Diego Comic Con two years ago. In both cases, there was a line of fathers waiting to buy these products for their daughters.

There’s clearly a market for a girls action figure line. I see fathers and mothers at the toy store with their daughters looking for products for their daughters all the time. Only it’s not available because no one has made it.

Again, if toy manufacturers and TV producers would produce a cartoon with a female lead, girls would watch it and buy the toys.

Created for GIRLS!
But guys can enjoy her stories too! 

Over the past decade I’ve been working on two fantasy series for girls, the Isis series and the E’steem series. Why? Because I want to give little Black girls the heroines that looks like them and presents the issues they encounter growing up. I've been marketing to women exclusively for over a decade and I know there’s a market for girls; I see it whenever I look at my royalty statements for Kindle and paperbacks. 

Women all over the world enjoy the Isis stories I write. But what many don't know was originally Isis was supposed to be a Comic book. But I couldn't break into the marketplace. So it became a YA book series instead. 

I'd still love to produce an Isis comic or a cartoon so little Black girls can have their own heroine leading her own series. And if I ever got a chance to do it, I’d love to have Isis action figures to go with my collection of Marvel Legends or DC Universe Classics.

Would little girls watch an Isis cartoon or play with Isis action figures? I don’t know. But I do know if given a chance a cartoon with a female lead or an action figure line for girls could do very well. I’ve been saying since 1999, girls are an untapped market for the comic book industry and cartoons; if someone makes it they will come.