‘Barbie Doll’ to Encourage More Girls into Space Missions

In a bid to encourage more girls into the space mission, Barbie has transformed a female astronaut into a doll, who is also going to encourage more girls to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The plan is designed in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). The Barbie doll has been created on the features of Samantha Cristoforetti, who is also the European Space Agency’s only active female astronaut. Cristoforetti has been selected by Mattel, the company behind Barbie, who is an inspiration and role model to young girls.

The new form of doll is a part of the ongoing toy brand’s Dream Gap Project, which is an initiative with the aim of closing the “dream gap”. A phenomenon that refers to the combination of barriers that stops girls from achieving their dreams or reaching their full potential. 

Samantha Cristoforetti says that she hopes that her collaboration with Barbie “will help young girls and boys to dream about their future without limits.”

Isabel Ferrer, European Director of Marketing for Barbie, said that the brand is ‘proud’ to be a part of the collaboration with the ESA.

Ferrer said, “Barbie has always shown girls that they can be anything, giving them the opportunity to interpret different roles through play and embark on countless number of careers encouraging imagination and self-expression”. 

She also adds, “We know how important it is for girls to have role models and this new ESA collaboration helps us to take this to an astronomical new level.”

European Space Agency’s Chief Diversity officer, Ersilia Vaudo-Scarpetta, Chief Diversity also agrees that the space industry needs a “diversity of talents to imagine and enable the future in space”.

Vaudo-Scarpetta said, “We are therefore proud to launch ESA’s collaboration with Barbie, highlighting inspiring role models as the astronauts and encouraging girls to believe in themselves, look at the sky and dream high”. 

Now as part of the collaboration, Barbie has also commissioned a report that tried to analyze parental knowledge and attitudes around STEM subjects. The survey of around 2000 parents found that 80% of parents said they lacked basic knowledge of STEM careers. On the other hand, the survey also revealed that a large number of parents have very little awareness of female space pioneers.

During the survey when the parents were asked about their knowledge of astronauts, most of the parents knew only about men in the space industry, which includes Neil Armstrong (74%) and Stephen Hawking (65%). Meanwhile half (52%) of the parents had accepted that had no idea of any of the names of the top female space astronauts.

But the majority of parents nearly 70% also agreed that achievements of females in space needed to be given more importance and females must have equal footing with their male counterparts, but one-third of the parents said they do not believe there are enough positive role models in space for girls.

This year, Mattel also launched a Barbie doll to honour British activist and model Adwoa Aboah. Aboah was selected for using her platform to empower young girls and women by founding Gurls Talk an online community in 2015 where young women can discuss issues such as education, relationships and mental health.