A second Malibu Skipper, Melanie (belonging to P. Jackson) was Mara’s identical twin and her match in beauty, talent and grace. Melanie’s personality cannot be easily distinguished from that of her twin, as the Doll Games’ rule of "equality" between the Jackson sisters and their representative dolls was here very strictly followed. Like Mara, Melanie’s flawlessness was also her defect, her character marred by her owner’s over-anxious desire to achieve, through the "perfect doll," that incontestable excellence so elusive in real life, along with its attendant rewards. Interestingly, Melanie’s hair was cut short at P’s behest, perhaps out of an unconscious wish to assert an identity independent from that of Mara, or to recreate the (by now) lost Laurie, himself brought into being when the hair of the Doll Games’ first Skipper doll was trimmed many years before.