Barbie isn’t one to be pigeonholed right into a career simply because she’s a lady. She’s had a formidable 200 careers on her resume — physician, astronaut, laptop engineer, CEO and even presidential candidate.
For Worldwide Girls’s Day on March 8, Mattel (which owns the Barbie model) is hoping to encourage younger women to embrace the fields of science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) by honoring a choose group of STEM pioneers with their very own Barbie doll.
Amongst them are the Wojcicki sisters — Susan (longtime CEO of YouTube), Anne (CEO of at-home DNA testing firm 23andME) and Janet (professor of pediatrics and epidemiology on the College of California, San Francisco).
Susan Wojcicki introduced in February that was “stepping again” from her management position at YouTube after almost a decade of operating the video-sharing platform.
Wojcicki has been concerned with YouTube’s father or mother firm Google from its earliest days, when its two founders labored out of her storage in California to construct a search engine. She later grew to become Google’s sixteenth worker and has labored on the firm for almost 25 years.
The group additionally contains girls STEM trailblazers from all over the world akin to Maggie Aderin-Pocock, an area scientist and educator from the United Kingdon; Antje Boetius, a marine researcher and microbiologist from Germany; Li Yinuo, co-founder of ETU Training, a faculty startup in China that gives a extra customized training; and Katya Echazarreta, an electrical engineer who has labored on 5 NASA missions and the primary lady born in Mexico to journey to house.
“Our dad and mom fostered independence and a perception that we may actually be something we wished to be after I grew up, however most essential was to pursue a ardour,” Anne Wojcicki stated in an announcement. “I hope that sharing our tales encourages younger women to strive one thing new, face one thing that will scare them, and take a look at challenges as thrilling alternatives.”
Mattel stated these one-of-a-kind dolls are usually not on the market and will probably be gifted to the ladies who impressed them.
In response to Mattel, Barbie herself has held greater than 40 totally different STEM careers, together with astrophysicist, house scientist, physician and robotics engineer. Whereas girls in the actual world make up half of the US workforce, they nonetheless solely make up lower than one-third of the STEM workforce.
“STEM is a subject the place girls are severely underrepresented, and our hope is that honoring these seven leaders in science and expertise will encourage women to comply with their ardour on this subject,” Lisa McKnight, government vp and international head of Barbie & Dolls with Mattel, stated in an announcement.
The Barbie STEM position fashions are the most recent in an effort by Mattel to champion the achievements of girls leaders throughout professions. For instance, the corporate honored tv producer and author Shonda Rhimes along with her personal Barbie doll final yr and elegance icon Iris Apfel in 2018.
Mattel’s push to broaden into Barbies based mostly on real-life extraordinary girls has helped enhance the Barbie collector market, stated Jim Silver, a toy trade professional and CEO of Toys, Tots, Pets & Extra, an trade evaluate web site.
“The Barbie collector market has been sturdy for a few years however Mattel has pivoted to that includes many extra position fashions,” stated Silver. “The shift has been extraordinarily in style with their collector followers and likewise has garnered widespread consideration for these position fashions who must be honored and sometimes don’t get the popularity they deserve.”
Famend British primatologist Jane Goodall additionally acquired her personal Barbie in 2022 as a part of the Inspiring Girls Collection of Barbie dolls which can be based mostly on girls who've been distinguished figures in historical past. The Jane Goodall Barbie was on the market. The Inspiring Girls Barbie sequence, priced at $35 for the doll, are sometimes bought at Amazon, Walmart and Goal shops.
–CNN’s Brian Fung contributed to this story.
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