Barbie maker Mattel has teamed up with designer Stacy McBride-Irby to release a new line of ethnic African American and urban Barbie dolls (not named Barbie). Grace, Kara, and Trichelle are a few of the newer models which are designed with darker skin, more full lips, urban clothing, as well as different hair styles. But these simple toys which are now apart of the long lasting American brand are getting both supporters and haters.
McBride-Irby says she created these dolls in order for her daughter to have a doll to play with that looked like her. Although it may sound trivial she has good reason for the concern. Historically research supports that children may benefit from higher self esteem and feel better about themselves if they see people of their same background in positive settings. This could include popular athletes, movies, video games, television shows as well as toys. But there are many factors that may also work against the “So In Style” Barbie actually becoming “In Style”.
The famous experiments done by Psychologists Kenneth and Mammie Clark in the 1950’s showed that black children overwhelmingly preferred to play with white dolls. It showed that they identified the white dolls with attributes like “good” and “pretty” while they associated “bad” and “ugly” with the black dolls. But the issues isn’t necessarily just in the past. Comedian Chris Rock began promoting his documentary “Good Hair” a few weeks ago on Oprah which began after he observed his daughter telling her white friend that she had “good hair” implying that she had hair better than her own.
1972 Malibu Barbie
Although this isn’t the first time that there has been a Black Barbie Doll, each time there has been critics of the idea. Some feel the move is too politically correct. Others feel that it’s not doing enough and that the doll still doesn’t truly represent what a black woman looks like by her body style or her the straightness of her hair. And some would argue that there should have always been a Barbie of every color and shape. The question is if you give it to a 5-year-old girl too young to know the history behind it, would she play with it?
-Erik
Real Talk 
Shout out to @Stacey for her contribution to changing the perception of toys. I am DEFINITELY ordering some of these for my daughter. Thanks for the post. From Tasha.
Hello. Stacy
My Name is Shelia and I’m also a collector of Barbie dolls. My first doll was given to me by my Grandfather in the early 70’s. I really did like the doll but it was not an African American doll, but I did play with her. I’m now in the place were I want to work in the Industry of Fashion and I have my AA Degree in Fashion Design and I have done Internships with Music Circus as a stitcher for the Costume Shops and Yes, I did love what I was doing but my passion is in the dolls clothes and designing. I read your article in the New Issue of EBONY on page 22. I Love that you have came out with Grace, Kara and Trichelle and I would love to design something for or with you, only if that was ever possible. anything today is possible and I’m willing to find whatever it is for me to do out there. If so e-mail me, and Keep up the good work!!
I think the new, “So In Style” dolls are very attractive. This is not a new idea for Mattel, however. In 1991 they put out a doll series called “Shani” and I had added Shani’s friend Nichelle to my doll collection at that time. The Shani line was intended to present Black dolls as being attractive and just as beautiful as Barbie. I haven’t added Nichelle to my website, yet. She’s in storage along with almost 85% of my collection. I hope to be moving this summer/fall and be able to find her and others to add to my site, but if you look up “mattel shani dolls” you should find a picture of all of the dolls in that series.
The picture of Malibu Christie in the pink bell bottoms on this page is from my website, Oh My Dolls! That is my personal doll and I have a few more pictures of her on that page. I wrote a whole page from my personal experience with Malibu Christie and why she’s one of my top favorite dolls. Please go to the website to read the whole article, found under the “my museum” button.
In general, I think dolls that look like real people are wonderful. Its when they’re ugly and unattractive that I have a problem. As a Native American, for example, I find those old fashioned hard plastic dolls with the red skin and eyes that roll up in the head very offensive. They were poorly made of cheap plastic. They usually had a headband with a cheap neon colored feather. I was anything but offended when Mattel did a Native American Barbie and she was pretty! I wanted my daughter to have pretty representations of Native women. Not be forced to play with only white dolls because the only Native dolls were offensive. My daughter played with dolls of every ethnicity. I wanted her to be balanced. She herself is multi-ethnic.
These dolls still look like black girls. Where are the real natural hair textures that shows the real true beauty of black girls. They still have white people hair textures.
Still “don’t” look like black girls… correction
One of the biggest arguments about a black doll’s lack of accuracy to real life is the hair. I do agree that all too often the dolls are given “white” hair. The reason is probably not as much to do with a desire for “white” hair as it is simple economics. Rooting a doll at the factory with the same saran hair, regardless of the skin tone, is cost effective. The hair is bought in bulk and rooted in by a machine. The same brown or black colored hair can be rooted into a doll who is supposed to be white, black, hispanic, etc. Its not cost effective to have the hair styled in cornrows or dreadlocks or anything like that.
Mattel did give their Princess of South Africa Barbie from the Dolls of the World collection a more authentic, natural hairstyle. Just go to google images and put in “mattel south african barbie” to see photos of her. Mattel has reused that doll’s face (aka “head mold”) for a recent doll Barbie Basics Doll #4 Collection #1 last year along with the same short, natural hairstyle. Those dolls are considered collector’s dolls more so than toys to play with, and it may also be that the play line dolls are rooted with the long hair to allow hair play.
Personally, I have cornrowed and micro-braided many of my black dolls (and even white dolls………. ala Bo Derek) just because I am a long hair person. My own hair is to my waist and I love playing with long hair on dolls. The ability to braid the dolls is something I enjoy. I loved copying styles from real life onto my dolls. The now out of print book, “African Hairstyles: Styles of Yesterday and Today” (Esi Sagay), has many fabulous styles both modern and ancient. There is real skill needed to achieve many of the styles in the book.
Another thought also is that many of the celebrities today are seen with “white” hair styles and Mattel is simply a trend follower. An example might be seen in the photo on this page: http://www.singersroom.com/BlackCelebrityPics.asp but just type in “black celebrities” into google images and you will get pages and pages of women with mostly “Barbie doll” hair styles. The occasional braids or dreads come up, but after several pages, I didn’t see any women with natural hair. Mattel will imitate what they perceive will sell best so they really like to follow trends in the media.
In 1970, the Shindana toy company put out a doll known as Talking Tamu who sported a natural “afro” hairstyle. But even Shindana, a black company, had few dolls in their line that had this type of hair. One of their other big sellers was “Baby Nancy” had long, straight black colored hair (which I promptly braided on my doll). Their answer to Barbie was the Wanda series, and all the Wanda dolls have long straight hair as well. Again, I think its a question of both using the cheapest hair available, plus the options for hair play that motivate the use of the “white” hair texture. If you go to buy hair for rerooting a doll, you can’t even buy it in a natural texture. The saran hair used for doll rooting is straight and smooth. Giving it texture is an extra step most doll artists or companies who make dolls don’t bother with. http://restoredoll.com/katsilkdollhair2.html
See my page on Talking Tamu: http://ohmydolls.com/dolls%20for%20library/talkingtamu.html
In the end, I think its nice to have a choice to have dolls with both natural hair and “braidable’ hair. In real life, women of color don’t just have the same hair and I like my doll collection to reflect real life in that way. I’ve seen beautiful women with both short and natural hair and long braided extensions and weaves. Variety is always the spice of life. 🙂
So, I loved too much this new line of Barbie. I’m a real fan of Barbie, but I love the black dolls more than the white dolls and I have a reclamation/suggestion: Mattel should make more dolls black skin because they are very few. Thanks