Just one year ago, in April 2009, one of the world’s biggest celebrities performed at Radio City Music Hall for thousands of screaming and adoring fans. The Latina superstar sang and danced on the same stage as other famous leading ladies had before her, the likes of Alicia Keys, Bette Midler, and Mary J. Blige. But she wasn’t glitz and glam like you might expect. This heroine pranced around in unflattering orange shorts, pink t-shirt, yellow laced socks, and white sneakers to the intoxication of a pint-sized audience.

Kid-friendly Dora the Explorer is to preschool girls what pop celebrity Miley Cyrus is to their older sisters. Except in this popularity contest Dora is the unmistakable victor. The cartoon has been syndicated in 140 markets worldwide, translated into 33 languages, and watched by 2.7 million viewers each month. The live action stage performance grossed $85 million in its first year—exceeding the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds concert tour by more than $30 million. The bi-lingual character is the #1 preschool license across almost every category, with over $11 billion amassed in retail sales worldwide.

Dora has been the untouchable leader in preschool entertainment since she trounced Barney in 2000. The purple dinosaur shared Dora’s optimism, but couldn’t compete in terms of palatability—parents just couldn’t stand the mind-numbing t-rex. Hungry for an entertainment alternative, Dora the Explorer was quick to take over airwaves and store shelves.

The great thing about fictional characters is that they never have to grow up. Real-life pop princess Miley Cyrus will battle with balancing her emerging sexuality and girl-next-door image, but animated Dora won’t ever have to reveal womanly curves. She can imperviously continue to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles in a happy-go-lucky fabricated world.

But we should have known a makeover was around the corner. After ten years of success as a positive role model for young girls, the squeaky clean explorer has adopted a new controversial image. The updated Dora is pursuing the tween market, and has tossed the orange shorts in favor of a dress, leggings, and ballet flats. She no longer hangs with pals Boots (a monkey), Swiper (a fox), and Diego (a boy), but has found a clique of pretty girls of which she is the leader. The “explorer girls” are dutifully diverse: a blonde, a redhead, one black girl, and one girl of Mayan descent. Instead of teaching language and logic skills, the fashionistas gets together to change their clothes. Mattel marketing executive Gina Sirard, who has partnered with Nickelodeon to develop the new character explains that the look “taps into a tween’s love of fashion and empowers girls to influence and change the ‘lives’ of Dora and her friends.” The change Sirard is referring to doesn’t just apply to their outfits. The new Dora that hit retail shelves in time for the 2009 Christmas shopping season allows children to change the doll’s jewelry, makeup, hair length, and eye color.

Blink. Dora has blue eyes. Blink, now they are green. If there’s an educational component to the new Dora it’s one of instant gratification and of image editing—hair extentions and colored contacts are justifiable to achieve a perceived model of beauty. She is teaching children that growing up means acquiring accessories and altering your appearance.

When Dora was initially launched as a bi-lingual character, the concept was considered forward thinking and embraced by our increasingly multiracial society. But Latin American roots were actually a last-minute addition to the character’s identity. The show’s creators had initially conceived her as a live-action rabbit—a bouncing human in a bunny suit—similar to the Barney model. A budget increase allowed the show to be animated, and the main character became a blonde girl named Tess. It was only after an industry conference that challenged network leaders to portray a positive image of Latinos that the character acquired her dark skin and locks, and became Spanish speaking.

The American audience has since embraced Dora as a positive role model, who teaches their children self-confidence, generosity, and cultural acceptance. But in foreign markets the character is interpreted as an English-speaking American girl. A simple flip of language beats hijacks Dora’s Latina identity, as the bubbly darling tutors basic English rather than Spanish. Now even the American Dora’s identity is weakened as she attempts to reach the tween market by flinging open the closet doors. And of course, a blue doe-eyed character is markedly less Latina than the preceding brown-eyed girl. The assumption is that she can hang on to little tykes who age out of the Dora preschool brand by adding “fashionista” to her repertoire. A likelier outcome is mediocre success as the maturing girls embrace their older sister’s interests instead. They might be interested in fashion and accessories, but the preschool-branded Dora won’t join them in that aspirational world.

There are other routes Nickelodeon could have gone to wrangle every drop of profit from Dora’s celebrity. A book series would be the most appropriate, featuring an older, still conscientious Dora with an increasingly challenging Spanish component. But in the meantime, you could see a glitz and glam Dora on stage after all. She will be accompanied by a teeny dog in a pet carrier, and wearing the “El Concierto” rock-and roll outfit (sold separately)—with gold lamé jacket and belt, hot pink guitar, and copper high-heeled wedge boots.