Howleen's redesign in gen 1 makes me so angry for a whole plethora of reasons, but one that bothers me that I haven't seen anyone talk about is how they made her look like every other character. Like they really made her one of 50 characters with bangs and straight hair. Howleen's whole thing was having a quirky fashion sense and trying to find her own style. Yes, she wanted to feel accepted by her peers, but she also wanted to stand out and not just be known as "Clawdeen and Clawd's little sister"
The reasoning behind Howleen's redesign is steeped in racism and sexism and completely erased huge aspects of her character. In her bio she states that she changes hair colors every week, meanwhile every doll besides her Campus Stroll doll has pink hair. And compared to her first doll, her fashion throughout the rest of the series was so tame.
Something else that really messes me up about it, is that her redesign could have acted as a pivotal moment for her character growth. Perhaps at some point she gets sick of trying to stand out, and does a complete 180 and starts to dress like the rest of the peers. Maybe she does find success in that her classmates are nicer to her, but she becomes unhappy from not being herself and acting a certain way to please others. And then it's up to her real friends and family to encourage her to be herself again. We rarely got to see the Wolf siblings bond, and this could have been such a great opportunity for it.
Anyway, to sum up my thoughts, Howleen's character was full of wasted potential, and I think she could have been a super relatable character to so many kids, especially those who don't fit into any boxes. The fact that Mattel forced her into one is absolutely tragic.
