Helen Mirren and Kylie Minogue with their Barbies.Photo:Mattel Inc.
Mattel Inc.
These Barbies are all about empowerment.
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, Mattel is honoring eight women role models from around the globe with their own one-of-a-kind Barbie doll.
This celebration of women also just so happens to coincide with Barbie’s own 65th birthday, which is March 9 — a fitting way to honor women this whole week.
Shania Twain with her Barbie doll.Mattel Inc.
The role models being honored with their own Barbies this International Women’s Day are:
“Girls in particular need to be able to see women telling their own stories, writing their own narratives, living out their own dreams, and we’re happy to honor these women in celebration of Barbie’s 65th,” Kim Culmone, senior vice president and head of design for dolls, tells PEOPLE exclusively of the lineup Mattel has created for International Women’s Day.
Shania Twain, Helen Mirren, Kylie Minogue, and Viola Davis as Barbies.Mattel Inc.
The one-of-a-kind dolls, which were created especially for the role models, will not be sold in stores, but instead are given to each woman as a gesture of gratitude for the work they’ve done.
“For many years, we realized we had an opportunity not only to position Barbie as a role model, but to use the brand to create likeness dolls of real women to give girls exposure to real people breaking through glass ceilings and achieving amazing things,” says Lisa McKnight, executive vice president and chief brand officer for Mattel to PEOPLE exclusively. “This year we’re honoring an amazing group of women most notably known as storytellers, songwriters and actors because we believe that storytelling is such a critical way to inspire and communicate and help people appreciate the journeys that these amazing women have been through.”
Creating the dolls in each role model’s likeness is a delicate process that takes months for the design team, and it’s fully collaborative — not just for the designers, but for the role models as well. The creatives at Mattel worked with the women to make sure the doll embodied their entire essence — from each strand of hair to the tips of their toes.
Nicole Fujita, Enissa Amani, Lila Aviles, and Maira Gomez as Barbies.Mattel Inc.
Zlatan Kusnoor, senior creative manager, worked on Twain’s doll, and he tells PEOPLE that it was “really interesting picking apart somebody’s face at such a granular level.” As someone who doesn’t typically work directly with designing dolls — he works more behind the scenes with Barbie’s social media — he found this process to be really “incredible.”
“We landed in such a perfect spot with her doll, she approved it right away, which was very exciting,” he says. “We designed her with this amazing outfit from the ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman’ video with contemporary hair — the pink hair that she wears on tour sometimes now.”
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“Honestly, I wanted this Barbie to make little 6-year-old Viola squeal," Davis shared in a press release. “It is my biggest gift to her…my lifelong mission and legacy to make her feel pretty, seen, and worthy. No words…just joy.”
65th Anniversary Barbie.Mattel Inc.
Mirren added in a press release that she absolutely loves her Barbie — especially that she has her own mini Oscar and blue hair!
source: people.com
