In December, Rebecca Sypin and Jane Bingham started a Facebook page, “Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let’s see if we can get it made,” urging Mattel to create a bald Barbie for women who’ve lost their hair–in Bingham’s case, while battling cancer. According to their page:
We would like to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie made to help young girls who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatments, Alopecia or Trichotillomania . Also, for young girls who are having trouble coping with their mother’s hair loss from chemo. Many children have some difficulty accepting their mother, sister, aunt, grandparent or friend going from a long haired to a bald.
We think accessories such as wigs, bandanas, scarves and hats could be included. This would be a great coping mechanism for young girls dealing with hair loss themselves or a loved one. We would love to see a portion of proceeds go to childhood cancer research and treatment. Let’s get Mattel’s attention!
As today, the page has more than 156,000 likes.
…And apparently it worked: Mattel has announced that it will indeed create a ”friend of Barbie, which will include wigs, hats, scarves and other fashion accessories.” It sounds like they won’t be on Toys-R-Us shelves any time soon, though:
“We will work with our longstanding partner, the Children’s Hospital Association, to donate and distribute the dolls exclusively to children’s hospitals directly reaching girls who are most affected by hair loss. A limited number of dolls and monetary donations will also be made to CureSearch for Children’s Cancer and the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.”
Now, do all the noble intentions make this an entirely good thing or is it always kind of disappointing that girls are still playing with Barbie dolls? …In a non-sex capacity, obviously.
