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Stacey McBride-Irby, a member of the Barbie design team has created a new and innovative doll collection; a line completely dedicated to African-American dolls. Mcbride-Irby explains, "Barbie has been such a positive model for moms and their little girls, and I wanted to keep that connection", but instead of the usual Euro centric looking African-American barbie coined "black barbie", she has created new individual sculpts with personality and goals.
The So In Style barbies embrace authentic African-American features such as curly hair, wide noses, and full lips. In order to capture the versatility among African-American beauty, McBride-Irby designed each doll with skin tones ranging from fair to ebony. There is even a barbie with Afro textured hair!
I was quite ecstatic when I heard about this; I can clearly remember playing with my black barbie and wanting to be cheerleader barbie. I had to switch to my white barbie because there was no black cheerleader barbie. I could only be "black barbie" with no career, no personality, no different outfit...just plane jane black barbie. So I tended to not play too much with her, her hair got chopped, leg broken and she was tossed under the bed.
This line can only bring goodness to the African American community. Young black girls will have barbies that they can identify with and cherish. No more brainwashing and subliminal messages. Hopefully it will assure our girls that black is indeed beautiful!
I wish something like this were around when I played dollhouse. I would have loved me some Trichelle and Courtney!
