Barbie Getting With The Times!

Barbie – In 1959 we meet her, she’s leggy, busty with an unfathomably tiny waist, standing at a height of 11.5 inches, an introductory television commercial airs with a catchy jingle, singing the words,

“…Barbie you’re beautiful…
Some day I’m gonna be exactly like you,

til then I know just what I’ll do,

Barbie, beautiful Barbie,

I’ll make believe that I am you”

And just like that little girls all over the US are hooked! I guess the flaw in the plan of having little girls aspiring to be exactly like Barbie comes about when you use a ratio of 1/6 and discover that Barbie’s rocks a 36in (bust), 18in (waist) and 33in (hips), oh and she’s about 5ft 9”. Not even the beautiful Victoria Secret models have this kind body frame!

Now being part of an industry that could easily be (and has been) accused of playing on women’s insecurities in order to sell things, I do have moments of guilt, but then I think of something like the Dove Real Beauty campaign as an example where it’s not all bad! A campaign that celebrates the raw and real beauty of many women, with all different shapes and sizes.

It seems now Barbie has possibly taken a leaf out of Dove’s book and turned a corner in listening to this new generation of millennial mums with their upcoming new range of dolls for 2016.

Barbie will now have three new bodies — curvy, tall and petite, she will also come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colours and 24 hairstyles.