If the Barbie #ThankYouHeroes initiative isn’t the epitome of our times, in the best possible way, I don’t know what is.
Barbie has added all kinds of famous role models to their collection in recent years, and now they’re honoring some global women that you may not have heard of, but are just as admirable as any Olympic athlete or famous artist.
They’ve created some very cool one-of-a-kind dolls in the likeness of six truly remarkable women including: ER nurse Amy O’Sullivan (above, left) who not only treated the first Covid-19 patient in Brooklyn, but returned to treat more after contracting a serious case of the virus herself. There’s also Dr. Jacqueline Goes de Jesus of Brazil (top right), the biomedical researcher who’s part of the team at the forefront of Covid genome sequencing.
Below is the US’s Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz with her own Barbie. She’s an Asian-American doctor based in Las Vegas who’s fighting bias and systemic racism in the healthcare system that the pandemic has laid bare. In her own Instagram post, she wrote:
With this honor, I hope to shine a light on the commitment and compassion all frontline workers exhibited over the past year and a half and every single day. I hope to represent minorities in America and encourage cultural advocacy. I hope to represent working moms who are balancing their careers while raising a family. And I hope to show all young women that they can be ANYTHING they want to be — even a physician mom and engineering grad like this girl
Forget the dolls, I just kind of want to read about these women all day.
Okay, don’t forget the dolls! Because they’re doing good things too.
Related: 16 fabulous gifts for moms that give back to Covid relief and healthcare workers
While you can’t buy the one-of-a-kind dolls, you can head to Target anytime this month to buy any Barbie Paramedic Doll, Barbie Doctor Doll, or Barbie Nurse Doll (below) from the Careers collection.
Think of a kid — or adult — who would love one, because each purchase will donate $5 to The First Responders Children’s Foundation, an impactful nonprofit founded at the beginning of the pandemic to provide essential support to the children and families of first responders.
(In fact, you may want to support them, without or without the Barbie purchase? Just a thought.)
They’re pretty cute, but I have to say, I have a thing for the real life versions.
I’m just so happy to see big brands doing good in this way. I mean, yes it’s marketing, but I know this initiative comes from the heart of those working on it. And it really can be meaningful — like it or not, the images kids see in the media and the dolls and toys they see on toy store shelves really can impact how they see themselves and their own potential, and help to remind them which “heroes” out there are worthy of our admiration.
And hey, maybe one day we can even do away names like “The You Can Do Anything” Barbie collection. Soon enough, every girl should be like, “duh…why would you think I couldn’t?”
Learn more about the Barbie #ThankYouHeroes program on the Mattel website. They’ll donate $5 per doll up to $50,000 to The First Responders Children’s Foundati for the entire month of August at select Target locations.
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