Pixie power: Marketers try to capture little girls' hearts anew

Fairies are creating a pop-culture wave that belies their tiny stature.

With fairy-themed books on best-seller lists, fairies populating top-rated TV shows and Barbie and Disney offering new fairy franchises, some say the magical creatures herald the next post-princess trend.

A sociologist might credit the resurgent interest in fairies to parallels between now and the turn of the last century, when J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" and Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies books were, as the Flower Fairies Web site notes, "well received by a post-industrial, war-weary public who were charmed by [the] vision of hope and innocence, which seemed to evoke a less aggressively modern world."

The "safe fantasy" of fairies appeals to parents unnerved by perceived threats to childhood innocence, said Mechele Flaum, president of New York-based Marketing Fire, a consulting firm that studies consumer trends.

"There is tremendous interest on the part of moms and dads who want childhood to be safe and sweet," Flaum said. "That's why we see this outpouring of wealth into princesses and fairies."

A cynic might just see the marketing juggernauts of Disney and Mattel capitalizing on what one publisher dubbed the "pink boa and tiara market," an age group that demonstrated its considerable buying power with the princess "phenomenon."

In 2005, the Disney Princess franchise accounted for $3 billion in worldwide consumer-products retail sales, a 40-percent jump over the previous year.

"Disney Fairies appeals to a slightly older girl, girls 6 to 9 years old," explained Heather Rubaum, senior manager of girls franchise marketing for Disney Consumer Products. Its princess line targets 3- to 5-year-old girls with role-play and fantasy," while fairies appeal to a later developmental stage, when girls are more interested in discovery and friendship, Rubaum noted.

Disney started its new fairy franchise last fall with award-winning author Gail Carson Levine's "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg."

"This book isn't going to bowl anyone over with its originality," noted a School Library Journal review of "Fairy Dust." But "children already enamored of the Disney Princess line will be clamoring for it."

Fairies fit right in with princesses, encouraging dress-up and imaginative play with a touch of magic. They belong to an alternative, charmed world, which appeals to girls' desire to be part of a select group.

Feisty nature

Fairies may be more palatable to moms, highlighting self-sufficiency rather than damsels in distress. "We don't want little girls to think all their problems will be solved by having a prince come," said Kate Klimo, vice president and publisher of Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group, which just released a line of Tinker Bell-themed early chapter books. "I think some moms have had it up to here with that."

Magic-wand-wielding fairies are the girl version of Superman, said Tony Reed, senior vice president of marketing and licensing for 4Kids Entertainment. The company's TV show, "Winx Club," features fashion-savvy teenage fairies who battle bad guys.

"Boys have always loved action heroes," she said. "As girls have become more empowered in our society, they too look for dolls and toys that [let] them have special powers."

Plus, fairies are cute. "Little girls are especially fond of fairies because of their beautiful wings, their pointed ears and their ability to fly," noted René Kirkpatrick, buyer for Seattle's All for Kids Books & Music in an e-mail.

"There is something appealing about tiny people who shimmer and shine and who can grant wishes and still look fabulous!"

For little girls, she says, "the best of all perfect worlds would be a book with lots of pictures of fairy-princess ballerinas."

Deep history

Long a mystical staple, fairies have never been "off the radar, just not as publicized," Flaum said. Tracing back to Irish mythology, media attention to the fairy world has ranged from Shakespeare to Brian Froud's adult-oriented "Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book."

Artist Barker's quaint Flower Fairies were long popular with adult collectors; about two years ago, Penguin imprint Frederic Warne decided to adapt the vintage drawings into storybooks targeted at 5- to 7-year-olds.

Designers took Barker's artwork — nearly 200 fairies drawn individually and accompanied by poems — and used computers to place them into different scenes and stories, said Diane Cain, director of consumer-products marketing for Penguin Young Readers Group.

"Fairyopolis," a charming $19.99 gift book purporting to be Barker's "Flower Fairies Journal," hit No. 1 on the New York Times' children's picture-book best-seller list and continues to hold a top spot 16 weeks later. " 'Fairyopolis' just blew the lid off it for this line," Cain said. "This classic collector's line has gone onto a whole new life."

Recent books such as the "Artemis Fowl" series, which features a take-charge fairy police officer named Holly, update the fairy world and spark boys' interest. "People love to read and think about the supernatural and fairies are probably the least scary of the bunch," Kirkpatrick noted. "Ogres and vampires are not nearly as human as fairies with their very familiar faces and body types."

At All for Kids, readers enjoyed the "Artemis Fowl" series "because they still love fairies and trolls, they just don't like the pink and sweet part of fairies," Kirkpatrick explained. "They like the smart, fast-talking, 'Oops, you're too slow' part of the life, [with people] being tricked and helped by 'unreal' beings.

"There are many new books about fairies being written for all ages, and it must be because we want to believe," she said. "I am clapping my hands!"

Stephanie Dunnewind: 206-464-2091 or sdunnewind@seattletimes.com