If Barbie could be a successful surgeon, president, skier, judge, astronaut, architect, teacher, CEO, pilot, film director, and rock star - in addition to having the wardrobe, family, late model car and well-appointed home to match - little girls around the world believed they could, too.
Initially sold wearing a black-and-white swimsuit and sold as a “teenage fashion model,” the original Barbie doll grew to have over 200 careers, with outfits that matched the attire of everything from a CEO to a veterinarian to an astronaut.
“That’s why we don’t put an age limit on her.” Bill Greening, who designed the reimagined 40th-anniversary tribute doll, agreed, noting that she “represents a beauty that is timeless.” “Barbie is ageless,” Black Perkins told me in a phone conversation. Barbie doesn’t actually age, of course, but 2020 marks the fortieth anniversary of Black Barbie’s groundbreaking debut. Then, when I was on the verge of turning 40, I discovered the original Black Barbie - designed by Kitty Black Perkins - was turning 40 too. Having a doll who mirrored what I dreamed adulthood would look like - full of upward mobility, adventure, achievement, and glamour - made me believe my fantasies were possible.īut I grew up, and adulthood did not turn out to be as effortless as my childhood dreams led me to believe it would be.
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It’s an expectation I learned in childhood, from the moment my parents handed me a Black Barbie doll, one whose brown skin and dark hair matched my own. I’ve been forced to make hard career choices, leaving organizations where I was overworked, underpaid, or where it became obvious that I was the token hire.īut once upon a time, I saw my future as something I could change at will, whenever I wanted to do so. Like many of my peers, I’ve found myself in spaces where diversity and inclusion actually matter very little, where I was the “first” or “only” Black woman and had to fight to be seen. For some Black girls, Black Barbie held even more meaning. For some girls, Barbie was a beloved playmate, her ownership a status symbol.