Middle School Moguls (originally named iBesties) was a doll line created by sisters Gina and Jenae Heitkamp through their company GenGirl Media, released in 2016.
The line began with a Kickstarter campaign in June 2015, pitching a doll line and tie-in book series that would promote “entrepreneurship and technology learning for girls 6-11”. The campaign would reach its funding goals by the end of July 2015, and by early 2016 would change its name from iBesties to Middle School Moguls. They would receive a launch in Target stores in the fall of that year, with four characters being released as dolls with accompanying books. Each doll represents a different field such as coding, graphics or business, and features 11 points of articulation.
In 2019 the Heitkamp sisters and Nickelodeon would adapt Middle School Moguls into a 4-episode CG miniseries, with new characters and a new canon from the original line.
The line was originally pitched with six characters, but only four of them would be released. The fifth character Ryleigh, an engineer, would be featured on the website and doll packaging but was never produced as a doll, while the sixth character Sarah, a blogger, was scrapped during development. Also, the McKinley doll was originally named McKenna but was renamed prior to release.
Above preliminary outfit designs featuring Ryleigh by Tina Ying Yang Yee. Image displaying all six initial characters from the original iBesties Kickstarter.
