The month of March: Women’s History Month. March 8 marks International Women’s Day, which is a day dedicated to celebrating a step forward in women’s rights and being a woman. This day we also remember all the powerful women icons in history. On this day in 2018, the company Mattel decided to release 17 new Barbie dolls everywhere, both current and from the past, for people to purchase. However, they are not currently on sale in stores and they have released “The Inspiring Women” series on International Women’s Day for preorder for $29.99.

It was revealed that Mattel conducted a survey of 8,000 mothers to find out how many of them were concerned about the kind of role models their children were exposed to. The feedback came in with 86% of mothers being concerned. Due to these survey’s results, Mattel decided to take action and bring out inspiring dolls such as these (CNN).

This new series being released is called “The Inspiring Women” series, which includes many familiar and famous female faces. Some of these role models include NASA physicist and mathematician Katherine Johnson, Amelia Earhart, Bindi Irwin, British boxing champion Nicola Adams, Frida Kahlo, filmmaker Patty Jenkins, Gabby Douglas, and many other inspirational females. In spite of the recent Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, even Chloe Kim, who is an Olympic Gold medalist in snowboarding from the U.S., received a doll of her own. As she is a young woman, this can inspire young girls in letting them know that they can achieve anything, no matter how old or how young they are.

With the release of these types of dolls, this promotes women empowerment especially for the next generation of young women. Hopefully, more young children are inspired to achieve more in their future, knowing that there are dolls made to remember and acknowledge the women who have made extraordinary achievements. Since forever, little girls were able to dress up their Barbie dolls and give them any career or role to play with and since they are commonly exposed to these toys, they are able to be reminded of what they can grow up to be. Cynthia Choi (11) agrees that “this particular collection of dolls could definitely help influence children to do more for their future.” Even Mattel hopes that “their new line will shine a light on empowering female models” (CNN).

Besides the doll itself, each doll is said to come with educational information on the women’s contributions to society (NBC News). This would allow children to learn more about the inspirational women in our world. Mattel has made a purposeful decision in creating this new collection of dolls.