Last Thursday, the Mattel toy company made a huge announcement. They sent out the news that that their iconic Barbie® doll would be getting a new look. This is not just one new look, its several: four different body types, twenty-two eye colors, twenty-four hairstyles and seven skin tones!
Mattel has been working on the top-secret project for over two years under the code name “Project Dawn” as in “dawn of a new era.” The line is entitled the 2016 Barbie® Fashionistas™ Line and it features Barbie® dolls who are tall, petite and curvy. They also have diverse ethnicities. The line comes in during what Mattel has labeled “The Evolution of Barbie.”
Courtesy: Mattel
Mattel is not stopping there. The brand has gone on to confirm on their official Barbie® website that “This is just the beginning. From offering products that feature more empowering and imaginative roles to partnering with best in class role models, we believe in girls and their limitless potential.” Mattel has paired these kinds of promises with hashtags like #TheDollEvolves, #YouCanBeAnything and #ImagineThePossibilities campaigns that have already been making strides for both children and adults as sources for self-positive and body-positive inspiration.
The brand will be releasing the new dolls over the course of the next year, in stores and online. The Fashionistas™ line will be available this spring but they are all available for online preorder now! Along with the Fashionistas™ line, Mattel will be releasing “President” and “Vice President” Barbies® and a “Game Developer: Career of the Year” Barbie® this summer. Now available is a “Spy Squad” collection.
Barbie® rebranding has been an issue for several years as many consumers feel that Barbie® dolls are limiting, that it is more about how the doll looks than the potential the doll represents for young girls. There has also been controversy over what has been dubbed “Barbie Syndrome.” The syndrome causes young girls to have poor self-image quality because of their unfulfilled desire to look like Barbie®. Before now, the Barbie® look was not just difficult to maintain, it was physically impossible to produce. The proportions of Barbie®’s body were found to be impossible to occur naturally. This is a dangerous image to present to young girls who can’t achieve the doll’s look physically without plastic surgery.
Courtesy: Mattel
Barbie® has also had a whole slew of careers in the past fifty years, ranging from ballerina to veterinarian, but Barbie® has never looked like the rest of us. In the campaign’s latest film ad, one of the girls showcased says “These dolls look like everyone I see walking by at the path of wonderland” which is not only the most adorable thing ever, but also shows us how the new Barbie® is and will be affecting young girls. They are thinking “this Barbie® looks like me and she is a scientist, an artist or the President” and they will start to believe that they can be any of those things.
With the new campaign, now Barbie® can look like all of us AND also be anything. Barbie® is transforming from being a symbol of what most of us are “not” to who many people are and can hope to become and that’s important.