Did you ever think you’d see the day when your Dream Girl Barbie ‘grew up’ to be a the Head of ASIO? Governor of the Reserve Bank? First woman on the Moon? Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police? President of the Australian Olympic Committee? Chairman (yes it can refer to both sexes) of the AFL?
Well, that day has come, and it’s just in time for International Women’s Day 2018.
Mattel has released a series of new dolls with the theme of powerful women in their ‘Never Before Barbie’ range.
Under the separate but also newly released ‘Shero’ and ‘Inspiring Women’ ranges, there’s a Barbie version of our very own conservationalist Bindi Irwin, American Olympian Chloe Kim, filmmaker Patty Jenkins and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Irwin’s doll will be wearing her trademark Australia Zoo uniform of a khaki shirt and shorts, with a clip-on toy koala on her arm.
The stories behind each of the women will be included on the boxes so that every child can learn about their history, and be inspired.
Lisa McKnight, the senior vice president and general manager of Barbie, explained that: "Barbie will be honoring its largest line up of role models timed to International Women’s Day, because we know that you can’t be what you can’t see.
"Girls have always been able to play out different roles and careers with Barbie and we are thrilled to shine a light on real life role models to remind them that they can be anything."
Barbie has certainly 'grown up' in recent years to be more reflective of real life, and society's value and empowerment of women.
Mattel even recently began offering Barbies with more diverse skin colours and body shapes, along with a variety of occupations. Notably, their range has expanded to include a hijab wearing doll in 2017, and dolls of different heights and skin tone combinations in 2016.
The hijab wearing doll was inspired by Ibtihaj Muhammad, who was the first American to compete at the Olympics while wearing a hijab, and who won a bronze medal in fencing at the 2016 Rio Games.
In honor of #InternationalWomensDay, we are committed to shining a light on empowering female role models past and present in an effort to inspire more girls.
Join the conversation by sharing your role models using #MoreRoleModels. pic.twitter.com/5oJnZywk7s
— Barbie (@Barbie) March 6, 2018
And just in case you thought Barbie was just for kids - there's even an Oprah Barbie doll that you can purchase, as part of the release of her new movie 'A Wrinkle in Time.' Now that's a doll that most women would happily tuck into bed with them.
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