Newest Barbie of Color Sells Out In Minutes

On Monday, a Barbie doll of Ava DuVernay, director of the Academy Award-

nominated film Selma, went on sale on Amazon. The doll was originally part of the  “Sheroes” collection for women in the arts, debuting at Variety Power of Women luncheon last spring. Mattel planned to only make the one to give to DuVernay, but Twitter changed their minds. A picture of the doll hit Twitter and, as DuVernay says, “Twitter did its magic.”  Mattel decided to make the doll available to the public during the Christmas season.  

It sold out on Amazon in 17 minutes.

The doll features DuVernay’s signature look with long natural braids, a black turtleneck, and red sneakers, but DuVernay’s personal favorite part is the director’s chair that comes along with it. “It took a long time for me to get a director’s chair,” she said. “I worked in independent films early on and we could never afford a director’s chair, so I didn’t have my own until Selma, even though I had made five films before.”

DuVernay was especially happy about the doll because of her personal history as a Barbie lover. She grew up in a poor part of Los Angeles and played with Barbies as a little girl when her mother didn’t want her to play outside. Said Duvernay, “My sisters and I would be inside making up epic stories with the ‘Barbs.’” 

DuVernay also announced that she will be donating all proceeds from the doll to The Color of Change, an organization dedicated to increasing African Americans’ political power, and the human rights organization Witness.

Beyond being a great honor for DuVernay herself, this doll has large symbolic implications for Americans of color. Mattel has never been a very progressive organization as far as diversity in its dolls, so having a black female doll is a big deal. 

Earlier this year, Mattel released a doll of actress Zendaya, but it was never made available to the public like the new DuVernay doll.

Having representation in the media is important, but so is having representation in dolls. The next generation of black girls growing up in Compton like Ava DuVernay 

will now have a “Barbs” that looks similar to them. They will be able to see themselves in an award-winning director and be able to imagine all the possibilities for their future. Mattel might only see profit in this doll, but creating it was truly a revolutionary act.

Sophia Cunningham is a vegan feminist from Orange County. She is interested in studying politics and sociology, and she spends her free time reading, writing, and singing. She hopes to educate others about social issues and the importance of activism in everyday life.