Introduced to the global market on April 13, 2007, Ty Girlz was one of only a few virtual worlds geared to girls.
On January 21, a Ty spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times that the Obama daughters were indeed the inspiration for the dolls.
"[7] On January 22, when asked whether the new Ty Girlz were inspired by Sasha and Malia Obama, Ty's Senior Vice President of Sales said that the dolls were not made to physically resemble either of the Obama daughters and that the names chosen "worked very well with the dolls".
[7] In February 2009, Ty decided to retire the original dolls[8] and give them new names, Marvelous Mariah and Sweet Sydney.
[9] Ty promised to donate the profits from sales of the original dolls to a charity, the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation for youth education.