Two weeks ago, Barbie announced that they will now be selling Barbies in three different body types, petite, tall and curvy. There has been an overall positive response to this announcement. Barbie has been criticized in the past for idolizing an unrealistic body image, causing younger girls to feel like they need to look like Barbie, which subsequently causes these girls to suffer from body image issues at a younger age. Mattel has been struggling for the past three years according to Fortune.com as Barbie simply couldn’t match the sales of Disney’s extremely popular Frozen dolls. Another factor that contributes to Barbie’s falling sales has to do with technology. Technology is being introduced to children at younger and younger ages and the demand for dolls is simply lessening. Who needs a Barbie when you can have an iPad?
On February 8th, BuzzFeed posted a video on the kids’ reactions to the new Barbie additions. They were met with positive reviews, mostly. One of the girls commented on the curviness of the Barbie stating, “I really really like the curvy one because some people don’t look that much like Barbies so I like how they made it more curvier.” Another girl stated that she thought they looked weird and she thought they were very creative when they made the new Barbies. She clearly, was not as impressed by the new Barbies as the other girls and boys were.
TheGuardian.com posted a similar video with young girls reacting to the new Barbie. The girls were excited about the new Barbies with one commenting that she “likes bigger Barbies” and another commenting that they “look like people that walk down the street.” It appears that the younger girls don’t necessarily grasp the complete concept of the new Barbie, which can be expected of younger children. However, they are definitely excited about the variety that the new Barbies provide.
Does this mean Barbie will make a comeback? Mattel is definitely in line with the more recent surge in the body positive movement. Barbie is now promoting a more healthy body image for girls to look up to, whether the younger girls notice it or not. In addition to the new body types, Barbie will also come in 7 different skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles. A girl can get a Barbie that looks just like her. This might appeal to more girls, but they will most likely still abandon a Barbie for an iPad once they reach a certain age.
According to a survey of 1,000 parents done by the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 59 percent of parents said that their children, eight years old or younger, have access to a tablet device and 52 percent of parents said that their children, eight years old or younger, use a Smartphone. These numbers will only continue to grow as technology becomes more and more ubiquitous and advances further in the years to come.
Mattel will continue to be in competition with technology as well as the ever-popular Disney dolls. The hope for Mattel is that parents will appreciate this change and encourage their children to play with the dolls rather than with a smartphone or iPad. Of course, children also have to want to play with Barbie over some kind of technology and that is a battle that has yet to be won.