As a young black girl growing up I found it hard to find beauty within myself. The women and girls I saw in television and magazines usually looked nothing like me. I had deep brown skin that matched my eyes and dark kinky hair, while straight hair and light skin seemed to be what was in. Even the dolls I played with for the most part looked nothing like me. Especially Barbie.
For decades, The Barbie Doll has come to represent the ideal woman. With her dainty waist, Rapunzel blonde hair, and tan legs that go on for miles, Barbie has been known to be the model for the classic American Beauty. This is despite the majority of her appearance being completely and utterly unrealistic. Afterall if Barbie were a real person her neck would be too thin and frail to hold her own head up and her small figure would only allow for her to have half a liver. This creates a disturbing narrative that being beautiful means striving towards utterly impossible standards.
The question remains: Why if Barbie’s beauty is completely unattainable do we idolize her so much? Barbie herself is a dream. A dream is something that is beautiful, yes, but above all else: not real.
But after fifty seven years from her debut in 1959, Mattel, the company behind Barbie is finally waking up and coming to reality.
With slumping sales of Barbie, Mattel has finally released a more diverse range of dolls. Their new line branches off from the original thin, blond haired, and blue eyed look to include a more wide range of features. The new Barbies come in four body types (curvy, petite, tall, and original), 7 skin tones, 22 eye colors, and 24 hairstyles.
With the body positivity movement taking off it’s important to show young, growing girls especially that there is no set definition of beauty. Rather it comes in a vast array of different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. With its new line of Barbie dolls young children can finally see that the features they were born with are nothing to improve or fix but something to be proud of and to love.
Whether it’s a short stature and rounded hips, a bouncy mass of curly tresses, or just a girl with a little extra height, these differences can be seen not only as perfectly normal but part of what makes one perfect.
With that, a new narrative is created. Beauty, rather than being a mold to fit into, can and should take it’s own colorful and unique shapes.