Barbie and toymaker Mattel have created barbie dolls honouring women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and it’s a powerful showcasing of not only the people behind the scenes of life-saving endeavours, but women making historical moves.
Meet the brilliance behind the barbies:
Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert
Dame Sarah designed the Oxford coronavirus vaccine as per BBC.
“My wish is that my doll will show children careers they may not be aware of, like a vaccinologist,” she expressed.
Dame Sarah picked a nonprofit organization WISE (Women in Science & Engineering), to receive a donation from Mattel. WISE is an organisation dedicated to inspiring girls to consider a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and math), and so is incredibly part to Dame Sarah’s wish.
Doctor Audrey Cruz
Doctor Audrey Cruz is a frontline doctor in Las Vegas whose efforts were also toward fighting discrimination as Mattel expresses.
Psychiatry resident Chika Stacy Oriuwa
Chika Stacy Oriuwa is a Canadian psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto. She fought systemic racism in healthcare as Reuters reports.
Biomedical researcher Jaqueline Goes de Jesus
Jaqueline Goes de Jesus is a Brazilian biomedical researcher who was at the forefront of leading genome sequencing of a COVID-19 variant present in Brazil according to Mattel.
Doctor Kirby White
Doctor Kriby White is an Australian doctor who designed a surgical gown that could be washed and reused quickly by frontline workers amidst the pandemic.
Nurse Amy O’Sullivan
Amy O’Sullivan treated the first COVID-19 patient at the Wycoff Hospital in Brooklyn, New York in the emergency room.
Over the years, Barbie has made dolls from the likes of Beyoncé and Naomi Osaka. Essentially, queens who should have their own dolls. It’s pertinent to understand that it’s far more than just a toy or symbol, but rather a statement that expresses the value of women especially in male-dominated sectors of the world. For a child and older members of society to look at toys of this nature allows society to shefulle its thinking about previous stereotypes that women are not as successful in certain positions. Additionally, it inspires the younger lot of the world (and hopefully even the older) to know that they can be anything, and achieve greatness.
Picture: Mattel