New York
CNN
—
Barbie isn’t one to be pigeonholed right into a career simply because she’s a lady. She’s had a powerful 200 careers on her resume — physician, astronaut, laptop engineer, CEO and even presidential candidate.
For Worldwide Girls’s Day on March 8, Mattel (which owns the Barbie model) is hoping to encourage younger ladies to embrace the fields of science, know-how, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) by honoring a choose group of STEM pioneers with their very own Barbie doll.
Amongst them are the Wojcicki sisters — Susan (longtime CEO of YouTube), Anne (CEO of at-home DNA testing firm 23andME) and Janet (professor of pediatrics and epidemiology on the College of California, San Francisco).
Susan Wojcicki introduced in February that was “stepping again” from her management position at YouTube after almost a decade of working the video-sharing platform.
Wojcicki has been concerned with YouTube’s mother or father firm Google from its earliest days, when its two founders labored out of her storage in California to construct a search engine. She later grew to become Google’s sixteenth worker and has labored on the firm for almost 25 years.
The group additionally consists of ladies STEM trailblazers from all over the world similar to Maggie Aderin-Pocock, an area scientist and educator from the United Kingdon; Antje Boetius, a marine researcher and microbiologist from Germany; Li Yinuo, co-founder of ETU Training, a college startup in China that gives a extra personalised schooling; and Katya Echazarreta, {an electrical} engineer who has labored on 5 NASA missions and the primary lady born in Mexico to journey to area.
“Our dad and mom fostered independence and a perception that we may really be something we needed to be once I grew up, however most necessary was to pursue a ardour,” Anne Wojcicki stated in an announcement. “I hope that sharing our tales encourages younger ladies to strive one thing new, face one thing which will scare them, and have a look at challenges as thrilling alternatives.”
Mattel stated these one-of-a-kind dolls should not on the market and will likely be gifted to the ladies who impressed them.
In keeping with Mattel, Barbie herself has held greater than 40 totally different STEM careers, together with astrophysicist, area scientist, physician and robotics engineer. Whereas ladies in the true world make up half of the US workforce, they nonetheless solely make up lower than one-third of the STEM workforce.
“STEM is a discipline the place ladies are severely underrepresented, and our hope is that honoring these seven leaders in science and know-how will encourage ladies to observe their ardour on this discipline,” Lisa McKnight, government vp and world head of Barbie & Dolls with Mattel, stated in an announcement.
The Barbie STEM position fashions are the most recent in an effort by Mattel to champion the achievements of ladies leaders throughout professions. For instance, the corporate honored tv producer and author Shonda Rhimes along with her personal Barbie doll final yr and magnificence icon Iris Apfel in 2018.
Mattel’s push to develop into Barbies based mostly on real-life extraordinary ladies has helped increase the Barbie collector market, stated Jim Silver, a toy trade skilled and CEO of Toys, Tots, Pets & Extra, an trade evaluate web site.
“The Barbie collector market has been robust for a few years however Mattel has pivoted to that includes many extra position fashions,” stated Silver. “The shift has been extraordinarily common with their collector followers and likewise has garnered widespread consideration for these position fashions who needs to be honored and infrequently don’t get the popularity they deserve.”
Famend British primatologist Jane Goodall additionally acquired her personal Barbie in 2022 as a part of the Inspiring Girls Sequence of Barbie dolls which can be based mostly on ladies who’ve been distinguished figures in historical past. The Jane Goodall Barbie was on the market. The Inspiring Girls Barbie sequence, priced at $35 for the doll, are usually bought at Amazon, Walmart and Goal shops.
–CNN’s Brian Fung contributed to this story.