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With an animated Barbie film in development, following the success of Greta Gerwig’s 2023 blockbuster movie, Mattel Studios will certainly have a diverse range of characters to bring to life.
On Monday, Mattel launches its first autistic Barbie. Coming barely six months after its first doll with type 1 diabetes, this newest addition to Barbie’s Fashionistas range is designed so that more children “see themselves in Barbie” and to encourage all children to play with dolls that reflect the world around them.
Autism is a form of neurodivergence that influences how people experience and interact with society. While characteristics of autism vary according to the individual, more than one child in a hundred is believed to be autistic, according to the World Health Organization.
Created in collaboration with the US charity the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the autistic Barbie is designed to represent some of the ways children with autism may experience, process and communicate with the world.
The doll’s eyes gaze slightly to one side, reflecting how some autistic people avoid direct eye contact. She has fully bendable elbows and wrists, enabling repetitive physical movements such as stimming and hand-flapping that help some people with autism to process sensory information or express excitement.
She has a (pink, of course) fidget spinner on her finger that helps reduce stress, wears (pink) noise-cancelling headphones to reduce sensory overload and carries a (yes, you’ve guessed it, pink) tablet with symbol-based augmentative and alternative communication buttons on its screen to help her cope with everyday communication.
Barbie also wears a loose-fitting, purple pinstripe A-line dress with short sleeves and a flowy skirt to minimise fabric-to-skin contact. Purple shoes complete the outfit, with flat soles to promote stability and ease of movement.
While the first Barbies date to 1959, until 2019 there were no dolls with disabilities. Now there are blind dolls, as well as Barbies in wheelchairs, with Down syndrome, prosthetic limbs, vitiligo and hearing aids. There is also a Ken doll with a prosthetic leg, another who uses a wheelchair with a ramp, and one with hearing aids.
Announcing the autistic Barbie, Jamie Cygielman, the global head of dolls at Mattel, said it was the latest expansion of the company’s commitment to representation and inclusion.
“Barbie has always strived to reflect the world kids see and the possibilities they imagine, and we’re proud to introduce our first autistic Barbie as part of that ongoing work,” she said. The doll “helps to expand what inclusion looks like in the toy aisle and beyond because every child deserves to see themselves in Barbie”, she added.
“We engaged with the autistic community throughout the design process, always mindful that autism is experienced differently by every individual and is not always visible. The elements of this doll reflect how some people on the spectrum may experience and express the world, and we hope that by partnering with influential voices within the community, Barbie can continue to showcase a broader range of authentic experiences.”
Barbie is not the only brand to make autistic dolls. Lottie sells dolls with autism, while Lego sells a variety of minifigures with non-visible disabilities.
Responding to the announcement, Jolanta Lasota, the chief executive of Ambitious about Autism, said: “Theoretically any Barbie can be reimagined as autistic, because autism doesn’t have one look. But representation is powerful and Barbie is an iconic toy, so we hope many autistic children feel pride at seeing some of their experiences reflected in this new doll.
“We know some autistic young people are reluctant to use supports such as ear defenders and stim toys at school for fear of standing out, so the more we can normalise these types of visible markers the better.
“With girls three times less likely than boys to be diagnosed with autism, this toy also shines a light on the experiences of autistic girls, who often slip under the radar.”
Ellie Middleton, an author and founder of an online community for neurodivergent people, said she hoped the Barbie would challenge some of the misconceptions around autism, which were a factor in her late diagnosis.
“I never considered, and the people around me never considered, that I might be autistic, because we had never seen anyone that looked like me, acted like me, or had anything in common with me have that label assigned to them.”
Having an autistic Barbie changes that, she added. “She is showing young girls that it is OK to be autistic, it is OK to be different, and it is OK to wear those differences with pride.”
