Mattel launches first blind Barbie in its Fashionistas range

The most popular fashion doll in the world now has a line with a vision impairment.

Blind Barbie has the shiny hair, high heels and picture-perfect features typically associated with the doll. But she also comes with a red-and-white cane, sunglasses that provide additional eye protection for individuals who may be sensitive to light, and a slightly upwards-looking gaze that blind people may have. Her skirt is designed with a textured ruffle, and brightly colored high-contrast hooks to make changing outfits easier for people with vision impairments.

Toymaker Mattel on Tuesday launched its first blind Barbie in partnership with the American Foundation for the Blind, an organization that advocates for individuals with blindness and low vision. From the Barbie’s outfit to its packaging, everything was designed to allow blind and low-vision children to find a doll that represents them, Mattel said in a news release.

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Lucy Edwards, a disability activist and British broadcaster who lost her sight when she was 17, is part of Mattel’s campaign to launch their latest doll. “Blind Barbie makes me feel so seen,” she said in a video shared by Mattel, where she was filmed picking up the doll for the first time.

She said she had felt embarrassed by her cane when she was younger, and loved how easily Barbie’s cane slotted into her hand, as well as the texture provided by the ruffled skirt. “This makes me so emotional. I so wish that I would’ve had this when I was a little girl.”

The tactile fabric of the doll’s pink satin T-shirt and purple tulle skirt was chosen after testing the doll with blind and low-vision children, Mattel said in its statement. The doll was sculpted with elbow articulations to make sure that Barbie can comfortably move around her cane, has an elasticated waistband on her skirt to make playing dress-up easier, and the box in which the doll comes says “Barbie” in Braille, the company added.

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Mattel also consulted the Royal National Institute of Blind People in Britain while developing the doll.

“It’s wonderful to think that children with a vision impairment can now play with a Barbie that looks like them,” Debbie Miller, an RNIB spokeswoman, was quoted as saying in the news release shared by Mattel. “It’s an acknowledgment that not everyone can see well, which means a lot to the blind and partially sighted community. This is a positive step forward.”

Disabled parents have described how difficult it can be to find dolls that represent them.

The RNIB, in its guide to finding toys for children with vision impairment, says that toys with good color and tone contrasts, bold lettering, good reflection of light, interesting textures, scents or sounds can be particularly suitable.

“All children love to play, but vision is just one way to explore and learn about the world,” the guide says. It adds that “seeing a toy with glasses, a guide dog or a white cane can help a child with a vision impairment grow positive self esteem and express their experiences through role play. These toys are also useful for explaining to siblings and sighted friends about diversity and difference.”

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The blind Barbie was released alongside the first Black doll with Down syndrome — Mattel launched a white doll with Down syndrome in 2023.

Krista Berger, Barbie’s senior vice president and global head of dolls, said the dolls show Mattel’s “commitment to creating products that represent global belonging and inclusivity in the doll aisle.”

Both new dolls are part of Barbie’s “Fashionistas” line that launched in 2009 and has now expanded to more than 175 dolls with a variety of body types and skin colors. The line also has dolls with vitiligo, a doll with hearing aids, a doll without hair, a doll with a prosthetic leg and one with a wheelchair, complete with ramp.

Over the decades, Barbie has faced criticism for lacking diversity or promoting unrealistic beauty standards. However, Mattel has shown “responsiveness and adaptability to the changing cultural and political discourse in society,” and continually revitalized Barbie dolls, including through the “Fashionistas” line, which has helped the doll’s long-term success, Sameer Hosany, professor of marketing at Royal Holloway University of London, previously told The Post.

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