Every year on Mar. 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day to honor the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. This year, Mattel is launching a multi-faceted Barbie campaign that hopes to increase access to female role models, support female entrepreneurs, and partner with like-minded global programs.
In 2018, Barbie established the Barbie Dream Gap Project, a multi-year global initiative created to raise awareness around limiting factors that prevent girls from reaching their full potential. Since then, the brand has donated over one million dollars to nonprofit partners to create new educational opportunities for girls and women. This year, the project is teaming up with Inspiring Girls International to work with schools in Spain, Italy, France, UK, Poland, Brazil, Australia, and the U.S. to deliver Dream Gap workshops featuring advice from various Barbie Role Models.
Barbie is honoring 12 global female role models with one-of-a-kind Barbie dolls in their likeness. The lineup includes:
- Shonda Rhimes (United States) – Founder of American Television Production Company Shondaland
- Ari Horie (United States/Japan) – Founder & CEO, Women’s Startup Lab and Women’s Startup Lab Impact Foundation
- Pat McGrath (United Kingdom) – Makeup Artist and Founder of Pat McGrath Labs
- Melissa Sariffodeen (Canada) – CEO and Co-Founder of Canada Learning Code and Ladies Learning Code
- Adriana Azuara (Mexico) – Founder of All4Spas
- Doani Emanuela Bertain (Brazil) – Teacher and Founder of Sala 8
- Jane Martino (Australia) – Chair and Co-Founder of Smiling Mind
- Lan Yu (China) – Fashion Designer
- Butet Manurung (Indonesia) – Founder and Director of SOKOLA
- Sonia Peronaci (Italy) – Founder of Italian food website GialloZafferano
- Tijen Onaran (Germany) – CEO and Founder of Global Digital Women and Co-Founder of ACI Diversity Consulting
- Lena Mahfouf (France) – Digital Creator, Videographer and Author of Always More
Additionally, Barbie is launching its first-ever collaborative shopping platform in partnership with diverse, female-owned brands. The collection is available to shop on barbiestyle.com and features a range of fashion products, beauty products, and accessories. For each product within the BarbieStyle Collection sold in the month of March, Mattel will donate 5% of proceeds from the sale and match the donation to the Barbie Dream Gap Project.
In partnership with Boss Beauties, Barbie is launching an NFT art collection that features a diverse assortment of Barbie careers. The Barbie NFT will be auctioned by Boss Beauties between Mar. 9-12 via OpenSea, with proceeds benefiting the Barbie Dream Gap Project.
