Minnie Bow Maker
Girl-centric app will please dress-up fans but is limited.
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Minnie Bow Maker
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this just-for-fun app is based on Minnie's Bow-Toons, a Disney Junior spin-off of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse TV show. In the TV show targeted at young girls, Minnie Mouse owns a boutique, where she sells bows and bow ties. In the Minnie Bow Maker app, kids join Minnie in her boutique to help her design bows for Daisy Duck, her nieces Millie and Melody, and Cuckoo-Loca. Minnie Bow Maker will be popular among Minnie Mouse fans and young kids who like dress-up and fashion.
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What’s It About?
In Minnie Bow Maker, kids have three options: Story, Bow Maker, or Big Bow Show. The main activity is making bows, which kids do in the Bow Maker and in each of the three stories. To design a bow, kids choose the fabric, color, design, and shape, then drag and drop the ribbon into the bow-making machine. Kids can also upload a picture from their device's photo album, adorn it with a bow, and save or email the photo. The Big Bow Show is an animated fashion show, where kids can see their designs modeled on the runway by Disney characters.
Is It Any Good?
MINNIE BOW MAKER offers kids a chance to express creativity and show off their creations to friends and family. Though the bow-making options are limited, kids will have fun seeing their bows on the runway. Besides making bows, however, the app doesn't offer much else. The stories aren't really stories at all, but just a few lines of dialogue before each bow-making activity. The app is extremely easy to use, so it's a good fit for the target audience.
The app seems to present the characters in stereotypical gender roles: The characters are all females and are mainly concerned with what to wear and making things look pretty. Take a look at our article Tips for Battling Stereotypes for ideas about balancing messages.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Encourage kids to read along with the story audio, or turn down the volume and read the stories with your kids.
Practice making real bows with your kids. Try using a variety of materials for your bows such as fabric, ribbons, even paper. Talk about textures, patterns, and colors during your activity to help kids develop new vocabulary.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Kindle Fire
- Subjects: Language & Reading: following directions, reading, Hobbies: fashion
- Skills: Creativity: making new creations
- Release date: July 2, 2012
- Category: Entertainment
- Publisher: Disney
- Version: 1.0
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 4.2 or later
- Last updated: January 23, 2019
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