Shindana Hispanic little girl doll plaid dress, mid 1960s

Shindana Dolls with a Difference - from the mid-1960s through part of the 1980s, a South Central Los Angeles cooperative venture sponsored several projects to assist inner-city blacks toward self-sufficiency. Operation Bootstrap businesses included the Shindana Toy Company, where assembly-line workers made ethnically correct black dolls. 

For a period of time Shindana continued to broaden its doll line and pioneered the making of multicultural dolls before they were trendy. The Chase Manhattan Bank Corporation, as well as Mattel Toy Company financed a portion of their business.

Shindana prided itself in capturing ethnic realism in its dolls. The Little Friends Collection consisted of Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, boy or girl dolls, that are about 12 inches tall, all soft quality vinyl, designed to drink and wet. Dolls are fully jointed, with painted features and either molded or rooted hair.  Shindana also made Celebrity dolls.