Lee Duncan

Here I am, Feral Cheryl's alter ego? mother? creator? who knows. I suppose more than anything she was an accidental offspring who started as a joke present for my sister back in 1995. At the time I was working as a broadcaster for ABC radio and didn't have any intention of going into business.

However, when a fellow reporter did a little story on the mock up dolls I'd made for a local craft market, the story took off around the world. The response to Feral Cheryl made me feel I had to pursue the idea. I took the brave step of leaving the ABC, and threw myself into the business of making an anti-fashion doll.

At around the same time as Cheryl was being developed I fell madly in love with Peter (known as Pedro), we got married in 1996 and had a baby in 1998 (Jack) and another boy in 2001 (Will).

So life has been rich and full of surprises since 1995. Now it's an amazing balancing act of managing two little boys and their feral big sister. We all muddle along in our little house in the very green hills of The Channon (on the NSW north coast, Australia).

 

Feral Cheryl began life as a joke.

My sister and I had been laughing at my niece's ridiculous pink Barbies, and started imagining what a ‘feral’ doll would look like. The 'ferals' was a name given to green extremists protesting to save north coast rainforests in Australia. Their lifestyle was the opposite to Barbie.

As a joke, for my sister's birthday, I changed a cheap fashion doll into a feral, with tattoos, piercings, dreadlocks, body hair and a few other unusual features.

With some urging from a few friends, I feralled up a few more dolls to take to the local craft market. The market was well known for its colourful 'ferals', some of whom used to sell greenish cookies, and as the market ended, they would start up their tribal drumming and dancing.

My feral dolls attracted quite a few laughs and attention at the market…and when a local reporter did a piece on them for a national youth station, the story took off and Feral Cheryl had an international profile.

At that stage, I only had a few flimsy cheap dolls that weren’t really fit for any market beyond The Channon, and I had people ringing and writing to me, wanting a Feral Cheryl. I spent the next three years developing a wild doll with a natural body shape, as an alternative to that blonde fashion doll.

Since 1998 Feral Cheryl has been available on the internet, and has found homes from New York city to remote Scottish Islands, from Italy to New Zealand, and Alaska to New Mexico. To see what people have to say about their dolls... see What people are saying.

The media has also taken to Cheryl, and she’s featured on television around the world, as well as on radio, in newspapers, books and magazines, as well as many websites.See Media Coverage .

Lee@feralcheryl.com.au
Nimbin St
The Channon. NSW. 2480
PH: (INTERNATIONAL) 61 2 6688 6158
(Australia) 02 6688 6444