Terri Irwin denies Bindi is over-exposed - at a doll launch
IT'S something very few mothers ever have to do - attend a toy fair to launch a doll modelled on their daughter.
But as Terri Irwin proudly held a Bindi doll in each hand yesterday, she insisted her nine-year-old daughter was just a "normal little girl".
"She is still a nine-year-old human being. She is a real girl, she is not nine going on 35, she is intellectually very developed but she is still a kid who loves to play with dolls," Mrs Irwin, who has weathered controversy over her daughter's increasingly public life, said.
"She takes being a role model seriously, she equates what she does with being a teacher, like her teacher Miss Emma.
"Steve was such an example as one man doing what he could to change the world. Bindi wants to encourage kids to dream big and follow their dreams."
Gallery: Cute little Bindi and her snakes
Mrs Irwin was left to launch the doll, which plays recorded messages from Bindi, at a New York toy fair alone after organisers banned children.
Bindi and her mother declined a special offer to allow her to attend because other children were unable to see the wonderland of toys.
"They said they would make an exception for Bindi, I said 'No thank you, I don't want Bindi to grow up being the exception'," Mrs Irwin said.
"I don't want to cultivate a sense of one child being any more (important)."
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Bindi saw the dolls, which repeat favourite sayings such as "love it, don't hurt it", on Saturday night in New York and told her mother it was every girl's dream to have their own doll.
Mrs Irwin also cautioned that her daughter, who has been at the centre of controversy about her extensive public commitments, was still a child.
Bindi's young brother Robert is the only family member not to have a doll, with dolls of Mrs Irwin and her crocodile hunter husband already on sale.
Proceeds from the sale of the dolls will go to the family's conservation work.
