By Moriba Cummings,
Mattel, over the years, has garnered the reputation of being a company that’s made diversity and inclusion two of its leading missions when designing its dolls through its iconic Barbie brand. Following years of praise for championing diversity — Mattel unveiled the first official African-American Barbie in 1980, the first Barbie presidential candidate in 1992 and the first Barbie to wear a hijab in 2017 — the brand is now adding a beautiful doll with vitiligo to the roster.
Retailing for $9.99 at Target, the doll, confidently rocking her vitiligo, is decked out in a striped dress, a waist bag, sneakers and a gorgeous afro puff.
According to CNN, Mattel explained in a statement that a prototype of the doll with vitiligo (a skin condition that causes patches of skin to lose their pigment) debuted on the Barbie Instagram page in 2019 and quickly became its most “liked” post ever.
In addition to this doll, the new Barbie Fashionistas collection — dubbed “the most diverse doll line” on the website — features 176 dolls boasting nine body types, 35 skin tones and 94 hairstyles. Also included in the line is a doll with a prosthetic leg, one that’s wheelchair-bound and another with no hair. The latter was consciously backed by the company, which said in a statement, “If a girl is experiencing hair loss for any reason, she can see herself reflected in the line.”
This article originally appeared in Aol.
