According to Ruth Handler (creator of the Barbie doll), Barbie has always represented the fact that a woman has choices. This has finally come to reality as Mattel, the company that produces the dolls, debuted a new collection of Barbie dolls Thursday, January 28th.
The doll has seen transition in form of race and hence the range of different skin-tones to represent diversity in complexion. Barbie appeared in store shelves for the first time in 1959, whereas their first black doll was launched in 1968. However, these latest changes count as the most dramatic.
We have known barbie to be unreasonably slender with long blonde hair. Now, the doll will come in tall, petite and curvy varieties.
“We have to let girls know it doesn’t matter what shape you come in, that anything is possible,” Said Tania Missad, the director of consumer insights for the doll line, in a video on the Barbie brand website.
Mattel now confirms that Barbie will come in different body types and seven skin tones, with 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles.
Beauty has for a long time been standardized, even as different cultures across the world possess their own definition of what is considered attractive. However, the world is slowly bending this rule as businessmen yearn for more capital and liberty dawns upon alienated groups in the society.
The invention of the Barbie doll’s new shape seems to be one of the proofs that the world is indeed warming up inclusive thinking in different areas, especially beauty.
Whether you are hourglass or pear shaped, you will now have the chance to identify with a Barbie doll that looks just like you!
