The first Latina character I saw as a child set the stage for every other young Latina character I would come across on television, movies, and in the music industry: Rosie Perez as Gloria in “White Men Can’t Jump”. For those who never saw it I’ve got three words: bling, makeup, deafening.
We all like to laugh at stereotypes, heck they’re usually grains of truth exaggerated to the nth degree, but the typical Chicanas these days have been border lining what Miami urbanites refer to as “Chongas”, a slang term describing a teenage girl ‘straddling the line between gangster and hooker’. For many Hispanic parents, that’s obviously no laughing matter.
Hence the introduction of Hip Chicas, 
“…the first-ever Latina-themed virtual world for tween girls. The site was created because the founders, who have three young daughters, saw that content and brands for girls aged 6 to 14 were filled with all sorts of negative stereotypes and lacked the rich multicultural perspective that is the reality of today.”
Using some of the features of typical social networking sites this one encourages Latinas to follow the far more constructive path from a game playing perspective. As a Five Latina member band tours across the nation they are challenged to stop and help mother earth in some way. (That is a bit of a twist).
Hispanics have traditionally been very conservative in nature, let’s hope this site will help parents push such values once more back in to their tweens lives before they decide to bust out the lip liner and hoop earrings.
