Her painted, sultry stare wipes away in an instant. Another wipe, and her plump lips are gone.

Karen Blaak scrutinizes the faceless doll lying on her kitchen table. Beside her sits a plastic bottle of nail polish remover, cotton pads and an array of paints and brushes.

“Her voice isn’t there because her makeup is in the way,” says Blaak, a high school English teacher and mother of 3-year-old twins.

She picks up a fine paintbrush and begins giving this Bratz doll a gentler, more demure identity.

“Doing this creates a conversation in our house about what real beauty is,” the 33-year-old says. “We didn’t have this kind of guidance when I was growing up.”

The “makeunder” movement is growing. As they grow more frustrated with provocative fashion dolls, parents are busting out acetone and paint to transform pint-sized plastic hussies into normal-looking girls.

“I’m really happy to see this makeunder movement starting,” says Eileen Zurbriggen, a psychologist at the University of California. “It’s positive activism that demonstrates that people do want other options for their girls.”

In 2007, Zurbriggen headed an American Psychological Association (APA) task force that examined the sexualization of girls in the media. The study linked such exposure to eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem.

“Girls should get to be girls and shouldn’t have to be sexualized by us or society,” Zurbriggen says.”

Since Barbie first strutted the tiny catwalk in 1959, fashion dolls have taken on increasingly unrealistic features.

These days, the popular Bratz and Monster High doll lines push that to an extreme. The figures have high-heeled boots, miniskirts, feather boas and fishnet stockings. They’re marketed to girls as young as six.

In response to such dolls, several “anti-Barbies” have emerged over the years, including the costly yet girlishly normal American Girl line in 1986, the anatomically average and defunct Happy to be Me doll in 1991, and the hyper-realistic Lammily doll in 2014.

While people have been repainting and making new outfits for dolls for years, the makeunder movement is relatively new. It started in Oct. 2014, when Australian Sonia Singh began repainting dolls after losing her job.

“I didn’t want to make a statement,” the mother of one laughs. “I just wanted to make lovely dolls!”

Singh focused on the Bratz line because there were tons of them in local thrift shops. Her mother then knitted and sewed outfits and they began selling the creations on Etsy. Singh posted before and after pictures of her creations online. By January, pictures of her work had gone viral.

“I was getting so many requests for dolls, there was no way I could make them for everyone who contacted to me!” She says. So, Singh began posted how-to videos on YouTube.

“I want to encourage and empower people to be a bit creative and to recycle and upcycle these toys.”

Singh’s story has inspired hundreds of others. There are now scores of Facebook groups, Etsy shops, YouTube channels and Pinterest pages dedicated to doll makeunders. Blaak even sells her creations on her Bright Dolls Etsy shop.

“I was immediately taken by the transformation,” Blaak says of first seeing Singh’s work online several months ago. “I thought, ‘I bet I can do that.’”

With the paint dry, hair done and clothes ready, Blaak leaves her favourite part for last: two little dashes of white paint on each iris.

“This is the thing that really brings her to life,” she says, proudly eyeing the reclaimed doll.

“I like my dolls to look awake and alive and full of ideas.”

Blaak’s three-year-old daughter Esmé cradles the finished toy against her chest.

“She looks like an angel.”

How to give a doll a makeunder

To get started, you’ll need: fine detail paint brushes, moldable plastic beads small hair elastics, nail polish remover, cotton pads, two small nails, superglue, a sharpened stick, a paint palette and acrylic paints. The paints can be matte or glossy, but you’ll need white, black, beige, pink and two tones for the doll’s eyes (such as light and dark blue). Giving your doll a makeunder will take two to four hours

STEP 1 – Stripping down

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Strip off the doll’s clothes, pop off its shoes and earrings, then tie back its hair with an elastic band. Put acetone on a cotton pad, then wipe off the doll’s painted face. Once the paint is gone, wipe off the acetone with a wet cotton pad.

STEP 2 – Scary sclera

Apply white acrylic paint to the doll’s eye sockets. The eyes should be smaller than the originals and they should match. Once dry, add at least one more coat of paint so you can’t see the plastic underneath.

STEP 3 – Mouthing off

Every doll has a different skin tone, so you’ll want to create your own natural lip colour. For pale dolls, a mix of pink and beige should do; for darker dolls, mix pink with brown. Make your doll’s lips much thinner than those of the original. Apply at least two coats of paint with a fine brush. Once the lips are dry, add a thin dash of white paint on the lower lip for teeth. Add at least two layers.

STEP 4 – Windows to the soul

Use two shades of the same colour for the doll’s irises: a darker outer ring and a lighter shade for the inner part. The shape and position of the irises will give the doll much of its expressiveness. Once the irises are dry, add black for pupils. When dry, add one or two little dabs of white paint to each pupil to bring the doll to life.

STEP 5 – Eyelashes, eyebrows & freckles

The colour you choose will depend on your doll’s complexion. In this case, we mixed white, pink, beige and brown to get something that matched the doll’s hair. For dolls with darker hair, brown paint might be just fine. To create an eyelash line, start over the doll’s iris and work outwards using your tiniest brush. Add a few brushstrokes to simulate eyelashes, then continue the line slightly under the outer corners of the eye. Do not outline the entire eye. When this is done, dilute the paint in your palette with a bit of water, then add tiny brushstrokes to create eyebrows. You can even use dabs of the same watered-down paint for natural-looking freckles.

STEP 6 – Earrings

Take two small nails and bend them. Add a little superglue to the nails and the doll’s earlobes, then slide the nails into the holes where her earrings used to be to make two simple studs.

STEP 7 – Hair

Be creative! To make the hair easier to work with, comb it out and/or wash it repeatedly with shampoo and conditioner. Otherwise, style and trim it as you see fit. Search for ideas online. Keep in mind that many dolls have bald spots, so if braiding, weave the hair in such a way that the bald spot gets covered. You can even tie off hair with ribbons, etc.

STEP 8 – Footwear

Bratz dolls don’t have feet, so if you don’t like your doll’s street-walking boots, you’ll need to make shoes for her. One of the easiest ways is to use moldable plastic pellets. Bring water to a light boil on your stove. Once it’s boiled, turn off the heat. Add one teaspoon of pellets to the water. They’ll soon congeal and become translucent. Fish the plastic out with a fork, then stick it on one of your doll’s feet and begin shaping it with your hands. Careful — it will be hot! The plastic will become opaque as it solidifies. If you make a mistake, simply dip the foot back in the hot water to make it pliable again. Repeat for the second foot. Feel free to paint them when you’re done.

STEP 9 – Getting dressed

Here’s another chance to get creative! If you’re an adept knitter or sewer, do your thing! If not, you can easily make a dress for your doll by cutting up some old clothes. Use fabrics that won’t unravel, such as jersey knit or faux suede. For this dress, Blaak cut a rectangle out of one her son’s old shirts. She then snipped four armholes and added stitching for support before wrapping the doll in the garment. Add an extra strip of fabric for a belt. You can even make simple accessories with elastic string and beads.