2:27
- living
- March 8, 2019
Barbie celebrates her 60th birthday
Generations of girls have projected lives onto the doll.
2:27
Mattel also announced it's adding dolls with braided hair texture, a new body type and Barbies who reflect permanent physical disabilities.
For the first time ever, there will be a doll with a removable prosthetic limb and a doll in a wheelchair. The wheelchair has been one of the most requested accessories from young Barbie fans, according to Mattel.
\"[She has] the most skin tones, eye and hair colors to give girls a friend that looks just like them,\" Culmone said.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Barbie (@barbie) on Nov 23, 2018 at 8:06am PST
\"It's promising that today's Barbie is so much more inclusive than the iconic white, blonde Barbie of years past,\" Dr. Rebecca Hains, professor of media and communications at Salem State University and author of \"Princess Problem: Guiding Our Girls Through the Princess-Obsessed Years,\" told \"GMA.\" \"I think they are doing a much better on race than on body type because even though they call the curvy body type curvy, it scales up to a 5'6” body type and a size 4. It's still an unobtainable body type.\"
Hains went on, \"It's the step in the right direction, though. It's better than the previous body scale which was 5'9” and a size 2.\"
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Barbie (@barbie) on Dec 18, 2018 at 9:38am PST
Hains said she appreciates Mattel including more ethnically-diverse dolls in its collection.
\"There are many studies that have been conducted about the consequences of children of color mainly having white dolls to play with,\" she said. \"Children absolutely deserve to see people that look like them...to see that their identity is culturally valued.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/barbieFashionistas-2019-ht-ml-190208_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Haines added, \"It's very meaningful that girls can now go to the store and pick up a Barbie that looks like themselves in terms of skin color, hair texture, face shapes and to lesser extents, the body molds as well.\"
Barbie \"Shero\" dolls celebrate women who have broken boundaries to inspire the next generation of girls. Olympians Ibtihaj Muhammad and Laurie Hernandez both have their own dolls, for instance.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Barbie (@barbie) on Nov 13, 2017 at 9:02am PST
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Laurie Hernandez (@lauriehernandez) on Aug 14, 2018 at 5:03am PDT
In honor of Barbie's 60th anniversary and International Women’s Day on March 8, Mattel announced it was unveiling dolls from 20 different countries. Representing the U.S. is 19-year-old actress Yara Shahidi.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/barbie-ht-ml-190307_hpEmbed_2_3x2_384.jpg\")
Other role models include tennis player Naomi Osaka of Japan, German cyclist Kristina Vogel, Canadian ice dancer Tessa Virtue, British model Adwoa Aboah, Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Chinese artist Chen Man and Ita Buttrose, a journalist and chairwoman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Role models are also portrayed in Barbie's line of \"Inspiring Women\" and career dolls. Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo and NASA's Katherine Johnson are all available for girls to play with and look up to in Barbie form.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/robotics-engineer-barbie-ht-jef-180626_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
To add to her resume, Barbie holds down jobs as a scientist, builder, beekeeper, yoga instructor and, this year, inspired kids to explore STEM opportunities becoming a robotics engineer.
Barbie is active on all social platforms, including her Instagram account, where she gives style tips and celebrates iconic women to look up to.
As a vlogger, Barbie now has a digital footprint while infusing teachable moments -- all which are part of the initiatives behind the Dream Gap Project.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Barbie® (@barbiestyle) on Apr 8, 2018 at 11:33am PDT
And in 2018, one of Barbie's most respected vlog episodes, titled \"Sorry Reflex,\" encouraged girls to quit apologizing for, well, everything.
\"I think there's a bigger issue around 'sorry,'\" Barbie says on her vlog, which was viewed on Facebook more than 2 million times. \"Especially with girls. We say it a lot.\"
Barbie went on to explain how saying \"sorry\" too much diminishes our self confidence.
\"There's so much more power in saying 'thank you' instead of 'sorry,'\" she says.
![\"Barbie](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/2019_BarbieCareer_60thAnniv_v01_AG_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
On the heels of the doll's 60th birthday, Culmone said it's a proud day being part of Barbie's legacy.
\"It's humbling to be welcomed into the homes of families,\" she added.
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