Barbie has enjoyed a long run as a predominant childhood toy for young girls across the world since her creation in 1959. With Mattel selling the dolls in 150 countries and with a new doll sold approximately every three seconds, it is clear that Barbie dolls have an impact on the some of the millions of young children who play with them every day. Toys are how children explore and learn about their world. When everything children see about their favorite toy suggests that the most important thing about a person is their level of attrac- tiveness, it can be hard for a child to find their own self-worth when they cannot seem to find any similarities between their favorite toy and themselves or the real adults in their life.
However, following a recent decline in overall sales, Mattel has decided to give Barbie the makeover that children and parents have been asking for. In January, Mattel released their new line of Barbie dolls which includes a more diverse array of attributes including hair color, makeup style, clothing type, skin color and body shape. These dolls feature major changes from the uniform Barbie of the past. The new line in- cludes dolls with brightly colored hair, curly and wavy-haired dolls and dolls sporting short hair and updos as op- posed to the generic Barbie with long, straight blonde hair. In addition to the new hairstyle, Barbie now can be petite, tall or even curvy. Among other obvious changes, Barbie is showcasing a large number of skin tones.
I believe Mattel has made the right choice regarding their decision to re-invent Barbie dolls to become a relatable, favorite toy for children around the world. However, it should not have taken until 2016 for the product to become available. I have seen several previous attempts by women to convince Mattel to offer a greater variety and realism in their dolls from the time I was a young girl who played with Barbies. I believe it is incredibly important for young chil- dren and groups of people in general to see themselves represented in popular culture. The inclusion of Barbie dolls that actually represent the everyday young adult or teenager can only help society raise children to become more tolerant and accepting of a world full of diversity.
While I hope that Mattel has finally awakened from its long period of unrealistic Barbie dolls, I can’t help but think that if Mattel really cared about the message they are sending young children, they would have changed their product decades ago. I would love to be naive and believe that Mattel really cares what society has to say about a highly influen- tial toy of pop culture. However, I know that the reality is most likely that Mattel decided to change Barbie because they were losing money and care about boosting sales more than boosting the confidence of people across the world.
