A new Barbie wears blue polka-dots, and a glucose monitor

Boston Globe

8 hours ago

The company released the Barbie with Breakthrough T1D, an advocacy and research organization with the goal of finding a cure for diabetes.
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Introducing a doll with Type 1 diabetes was part of Mattel's 'commitment to inclusivity and representation,' Krista Berger, the company's senior vice president of Barbie and global head of dolls, said in a statement. She said a Barbie with an insulin pump would help some children see themselves in the stories they imagine while playing.
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Tens of millions of Americans have some form of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the pancreas to make very little insulin or none at all.
Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which usually emerges slowly in adulthood and can sometimes be reversed early on with exercise and dietary changes, Type 1 often strikes in childhood or adolescence.
On TikTok and Instagram, some users with Type 1 diabetes expressed their joy with the new Barbie, some sharing emotional posts about seeing their disease represented.
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Anurati Aggarwal, who posts about Type 1 diabetes online from Goa, India, was among them.
'Sorry I can't hold my excitement,' she said on Instagram. 'This is actually so emotional for me. The little me who was obsessed with Barbies would lose her mind if she saw this.'
Managing diabetes can be difficult. People with the disease have to monitor sugar levels and inject insulin around the clock. It can also lead to complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney damage and the possibility of losing a limb to amputation.
The newest Barbie is part of Mattel's Fashionistas line, which the company has called its 'most diverse doll line.' Last year, Mattel introduced a blind Barbie, who has a red-and-white cane with a marshmallow roller tip and sunglasses suited for light-sensitive eyes.
In 2019, Mattel released a Barbie in a wheelchair and a Barbie with a prosthetic limb. Other dolls in the Fashionistas line include a Barbie with Down syndrome, a Barbie with hearing aids, a bald Barbie, a Barbie with a skin condition and Barbies with different hair types and body shapes.
Barbie, one of the most successful dolls of all time, was criticized for a period in the early 2000s as other companies started to manufacture more diverse and inclusive dolls while she continued to look roughly the same as her 1959 self. In 2010, the company apologized for a book about Barbie and computers that critics said was sexist.
Since then, the company has worked to reinvent Barbie.
And in 2023, Barbie's favorite color — bright pink, obviously — catapulted back to the center of popular culture with the release of 'Barbie,' the movie directed by Greta Gerwig that earned $1.4 billion worldwide.
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