Barbie's new shapes: Tall, petite and curvy
Barbie may now look a bit more like the rest of us, curves and all.
Mattel, the maker of Barbie, announced Thursday the iconic doll will now come in three new body types and a variety of skin tones and hairstyles. This is the first time the doll will be available in body types beyond its original stick-thin frame.
Mattel has been putting Barbie through a transformation for the past two years to bring the doll in line with realistic body standards and reflect the diversity of the kids playing with the dolls. Last year Mattel introduced 23 new dolls with different skin tones, hairstyles, outfits and flat feet, rather than the perpetually pointy ones meant to fit into sky-high heels.
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This year's dolls will be available in tall, petite and curvy body types. Online sales start Thursday on Barbie.com and dolls will start hitting stores March 1, with a total of 33 new dolls being rolled out by the end of the year.
Gallery: Meet Barbie: Tall, petite, curvy and original
The new toys allow "the product line to be a better reflection of what girls see in the world around them," says spokeswoman Michelle Chidoni.
Mattel has long been criticized for the doll's unrealistic body proportions — a woman who appears impossibly tall, thin and busty — a reputation it's been trying to fight as it brings the brand in line with modern expectations.
"We believe we have a responsibility to girls and parents to reflect a broader view of beauty," said Evelyn Mazzocco, senior vice president and global general manager of Barbie, in a company statement.
The new body types have the potential to impact both girls and boys' expectations of body image, says Florence Williams, a visiting scholar at George Washington University's public health school and author of Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History.
"Kids are just bombarded with images that are really just not true to nature," she says. "It can potentially damage your self-esteem or limit your world view." She adds that it's important for young boys to understand women's bodies come in all shapes and sizes because "they grow up expecting girls' bodies to look a certain way."
Barbie's waif-like appearance in many ways spurred the quest to find a doll that doesn’t perpetuate unattainable beauty standards for young girls.
In 2014, Nickolay Lamm of Pittsburgh raised over $95,000 to produce a first run of the Lammily doll. Lammily has the body proportions of an average 19-year-old woman based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The doll was nicknamed the “normal Barbie" and could be purchased with "Lammily marks," or stickers that included cellulite, stretch marks, freckles and acne.
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