Mattel Introduces African American Barbies With Realistic Features

Filed Under: Baby Blabber Etc. Inspiration Business Blitz Hairstyles

It's about time!

Mattel is releasing a new line of African American Barbie dolls, called Barbie So In Style, in which the dolls' facial features more realistically reflect those of African American women.

Head Barbie designer, Stacey McBride-Irby, said "I wanted to create a beautiful line of dolls that [my daughter] can look at and be proud of. I wanted to create dolls with fuller lips, the makeup, the sassy attitude, that little girls will want to actually continue to play with or even 12 year olds might want to just have them on their shelves in their bedrooms that they can collect and say 'Oh that doll looks like me!'"

The first African American Barbie doll, "Christie," was introduced in the 1960s and was basically just Barbie dyed brown. In 1980, "Black Barbie," debuted, but was still essentially the white doll with a generic darker skin tone, which has been the pattern with nearly every African American Barbie that has been released since, until now.

McBride-Irby's line of dolls features 3 grown up dolls, "Grace," "Trichelle," and "Kara," and the "Little Sisters," they mentor, "Courtney," "Janessa," and "Kianna," respectively. The dolls exhibit a range of more realistic features, with varying skin tones and hairstyles, fuller lips, and fuller noses. McBride-Irby said, "I want them to be examples to real girls, so I wanted to put that together in the play pattern that big sisters are mentoring little girls. They can be real sisters, or they can be part of the mentor program."

Each doll comes with an inspirational background story. For instance, Grace is a cheerleader who's favorite subject is science. Trichelle is an artsy journalist, and Kara loves to play music and do math.

"I wanted to make sure I had an aspirational component to these dolls… that moms will hone in on and let little girls know that you can play music, but you also need to enjoy math too, or science, or journalism writing," said McBride-Irby.

Despite McBride-Irby's efforts to "make sure it was what we see on the outside world," some critics are saying that the dolls are still not "black enough," particulary when it comes to the the hair. Only one grown up doll, Trichelle, has curly hair, which some find troubling. One customer asked, "Why are we always pushing this standard of long hair on our girls? Why couldn't one of the dolls have a little short afro, or braids or something?"

Another complaint transcends race and is really just an issue with Barbie in general: concerns have been voiced about the doll's impossibly thin frame.

Still, the general response has been positive, with women praising the variety of skin tones and physical features.

"I just wanted to make sure that I was answering my community's needs with different skin tones, the hairstyles, the fashion," said McBride-Irby. "I would love for little girls - first of all, I know that they're growing up really fast right now, so I wanted to bring back that wholesome little girl, and I know that creating a happy, inspired childhood creates happy, inspired, powerful women…. I want little girls to be able to say 'I have an African American Barbie that I love.'"

The Barbie So In Style collection is in stores now.

[Images courtesy of Mattel.

Posted: October 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm