New dolls
The first Barbie with a hearing aid is launched
Barbie and Ken’s diversity line is growing.
© Devin Tucker (Mattel PR)
Barbie and Ken’s diversity line dolls are some of the most popular with customers – and they’ve grown.
The toy manufacturer Mattel has introduced new Barbie and Ken dolls that bring a little more diversity to the toy shelf. Among the new characters is the first Barbie to be fitted with behind-the-ear hearing aids to accommodate those with hearing loss. Another doll has a prosthetic leg, and there are a variety of new body types.
And Ken also has new colleagues: After a Barbie with vitiligo came onto the market in 2020, there is now also a Ken with the pigment disorder. In addition, new Ken dolls with a very slim physique and new hair structures are to be introduced.
The fashionistas family is growing
The dolls are the latest additions to the “Fashionistas family”, as Mattel calls the diversity series. The line offers a variety of skin and eye tones, hair colors and textures, body types and styles.
These also include dolls with physical disabilities, such as a Barbie in a wheelchair. The diversity aims to help children “find a doll they can identify with”, it says in the press release. In addition, they should “discover different versions of beauty and fashion,” says Mattel spokeswoman Anne Polsak.
The diversity on the doll shelf obviously also pays off: As Mattel reports, eight of the ten most popular dolls in the world in 2021 were diverse.