In a lot of ways, Feral Cheryl is a multi media creation. She was just a little joke at a local craft market until she featured in a tiny news story on a youth radio station back in May 1995. Then the quirky story took off, and she featured in radio, tv and print media in Australia, the United States, The United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Years later when the product had been properly developed, she was relaunched and once again the media embraced her. Since 1998 she has appeared in a wide variety of publications...from feminist magazines to mens mags, and even a theological publication (see Homiletics). True!

• Who magazine ( the Australian version of the US People mag)
  The first thing most people do when they meet Feral Cheryl is lift up her skirt to take a peek. The giggle factor is the 34 cm doll’s dark thatch of pubic hair. (February 1998)
• Australian Netguide
  Not a splash of pink in sight here and none of those tortured looking feet either.....(Feral Cheryl) is your natural doll wearing her alternative lifestyle with pride. She's one of the joyful toys to come out of Australia, a doll that's a realistic portrayal of the feminine body (May 1999)
• Aussie Post
• Weight Watchers magazine (Aus)
• Colors (Italy)
  Cheryl is Australia’s wilder alternative to Barbie,. The punk hippie green extremist has flat feet because she doesn’t wear shoes, dreadlocks because she lives in a forest and an untrimmed bikini line because she’s not ashamed of her body hair. Most importantly she’s independent (there’s no feral version of Ken) and unlike Barbie, requires no "sweatshop labour from Asian toy factories" (Jan 1999)
• Bizarre (UK)
  there’s now a Glastonbury perfect crustie cutie in the form of Feral Cheryl. Sadly lacking the definitive dog-on-a-string, she does sport home-made clothes, teasing tattoos, piercings, a bag of weed and a stunning abundance of pubic hair. (Sept 1999)
• Enroute (Canada)
  Parents will not doubt enjoy the fact that there are no accessories to buy for nature lovin’ Feral Cheryl. She’s just not into the excess consumerism thing… (March 1999)
• Mother Jones (US)
  Think of her as the bastard love child of Ken and Barbie. Feral Cheryl hails from Southeastern Australia, where the term "feral" refers to hippie-esque environmental activists. She's the whole-grain pseudoprogeny of Mattel's white-bread couple... (Sept/Oct 1999) http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/SO99/feral_cheryl.html
• Ms magazine (US)
• Maxim (US)
• Playboy (US)
  Under The Tip Sheet: Feral Cheryl: An Australian doll that has dreadlocks, piercings, and pubic hair. Wax kit sold separately. (July 2001)
• Hues (US)
  Lets Make Her Our Mascot! …You’ve just got to love a doll with a name that evokes images of primal, powerful women, and has a motto of ‘Live Simply, Run Wild’… (Mar/April 1999)
• UTNE DAILY
  Feral Cheryl: The Socially Conscious Alternative To Barbie, feralcheryl.com
  In 1995, Lee Duncan created Feral Cheryl--a doll with "dark hair, a realistic body shape and pubic hair"--as a gag gift for her sister's birthday. Since then this Barbie doll competitor from Australia has captured worldwide attention. Her website boasts, "Feral Cheryl has been seen on London TV, at a Californian science fiction writers conference, and is taken to regular music gigs by musicians from Las Vegas to Byron Bay." The name comes from Australia's green extremists, which the Aussies call "ferals." Though started as a joke, Duncan also wanted to create an alternative to the blond fashion doll: one that needs no accessories...
  --Sara V. Buckwitz
• MS MAGAZINE:
  WILD THANG
  Barbie may have learned her logarithms, but she has a long way to go before she can compete with Down Under's new doll, known as Feral Cheryl. Feralcheryl.com.au reports that "unlike other fashion dolls, Feral Cheryl is NOT blonde, and not ridiculously thin, and there are no accessories to buy. She goes barefoot, has tattoos, dreadlocks, simple clothes, and a handmaid rainbow bag. She lives simply and with a healthy body shape, and pubic hair." Bikini wax not included.
  Ms. magazine, Vol. X, no. 3 (April/May 2000), clippings, p. 34
• THE AGE, MELBOURNE.
  All of these dolls, from the glamour Barbies to the Get Set dolls to the prettily plump Emme doll, are made in China, where factory workers churn out literally billions of hard plastic bodies for little western girls to play dress-ups. But there is an Australian doll on the market with a real body shape that is manufactured locally. She's also the only doll on the market to sport hair between the legs.

  She's Feral Cheryl. Former ABC journalist Lee Duncan first made a dozen hippie dolls to sell at the market back in 1995, inspired by the hippies and ferals she saw around her home in Lismore in New South Wales. One of her colleagues produced a story about the dolls for Triple J and within hours, says Duncan, she was being interviewed by media outlets as far afield as the
  Reuters office in Washington DC.

  With her dreadlocks, piercings and tattoos, Cheryl has occasionally attracted a little talkback flack and tabloid shock, but she also has her devotees. One fan from Tasmania emailed Duncan to say: "Thank you for saving the children from stupid, anorexic, dumb blonde dolls with big boobs who wear ridiculous 80's style clothes!"

  Duncan sells the dolls for $US 49. She says she can't compete on price with the Barbies because she gets the bodies made in Australia and then adds the dreads, bindis, clothes and features herself. "If I go offshore, I could get them made for $2, but you can't promote one thing for girls in the western world while oppressing the women in China who make the dolls."
  Article by Michelle Griffin, March 2002

• HOMILETICS
  " Radical Chick"
  While Barbie is a politically correct 21c woman, dabbling in every career from veterinarian to pilot to professional volleyball player, Feral Cheryl simply hangs out. While Barbie can be seen wearing a swimsuit, astronaut uniform or scuba diving gear, Feral Cheryl wears only a carefree sarong and bandeau top. Barbie gets around in an array of vehicles form Mustang convertible to Holiday Camper to wheelchair; Feral Cheryl walks everywhere she goes unhampered by the stiletto heels Barbie often prefers.
  
  While Barbie is cranked out in Asian factories producing hundreds of identical creations each day, Feral Cheryls are individually made. No two are the same.
  
  So what's all this got to do with being a child of God? Plenty.
  What exactly does a child of God look like? …Perhaps we are all supposed to look alike. Family members often do bear a striking resemblance to each other. Often, but not always.
  
  Many families have Feral Cheryls who insist on drumming to a different march. Unfortunately the church too often has a Barbie look to it- full of characters who exude success. Very conventional. Very mainstream.
  May 2000