Barbie Dolls Now Represent Diverse Body Types And Skin Colors As Mattel Fights Sales Drop In 2016; See Designs Here!
Barbie dolls have long been depicted as a tall, skinny, blue-eyed, blonde woman.
However, over recent years, toy company, Mattel Inc., experienced tremendous sales drop and drew criticism because of the lack of diversity in their famous toy doll.
Last year, Mattel's sales dropped by a whopping 19 percent during the second quarter alone, The Wall Street Journal reported in October. The loss in sales translated to $11.4 million, compared with a profit of $28.3 million in 2014.
According to reports, much of Mattel's sales drop is due to the lack of diversity to its Barbie doll products. Many have called out the toy company for setting unrealistic beauty standards for young girls. Because of that, the company is now attempting to rebrand the decades-old Barbie merchandise.
Mattel Inc. has released the new 2016 Barbie Fashionistas line which represents Barbie in four new body types, 24 hairstyles, 22 eye colors and 7 skin tones. This to focus on "progress not perfection."
This year, Barbie dolls that are petit, tall, curvy, skinny, dark-skinned, light-skinned, blonde, brunette, black-haired (even blue haired!) are now available.
A photo posted by Barbie (@barbie) on Jan 28, 2016 at 9:46pm PST
With 4 body types, 7 skin tones, 22 eye colors, and 24 hairstyles, we proudly offer girls more choices than ever. Learn more at Barbie. com and share your favorite dolls. #TheDollEvolves #Barbie A photo posted by Barbie (@barbie) on Jan 28, 2016 at 8:01am PST
A photo posted by Barbie (@barbie) on Jan 28, 2016 at 10:27am PST
The more diverse Barbie initiative is reportedly two years in the making as Mattel had to take into consideration a lot of things. One of the issues was packaging.
"Mothers surveyed in Mattel focus groups expressed concern over giving the new dolls to their daughter or a friend of their daughter's," Time reported. "What if a sensitive mom reads into the gift of a curvy doll a comment on her daughter's weight? Mattel decided to sell the dolls in sets to avoid this problem, but then it had to figure out which dolls to sell together to optimize diversity and marketability."
"Yes, some people will say we are late to the game," Evelyn Mazzocco, head of the Barbie brand, told Time. "But changes at a huge corporation take time."
