Mattel Just Released a Rosa Parks Barbie

I’m not sure how to feel about this.

Barbie/Mattel

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Barbie’s latest incarnation is a far cry from the blond fashionista whose highest aspiration was an unlimited shopping spree. Mattel announced Monday that the latest in its lineup of Inspiring Women Barbies will be civil rights leader Rosa Parks.

Parks made history when, in 1955, she refused to give her bus seat up for a white passenger—an event that launched the Montgomery bus boycott, which ended in the racial desegregation of buses in Alabama. Barbie’s Inspiring Women series features “courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before,” according to the doll’s product description. Now, for $30.99, kids can play with a doll worth looking up to. 

The Inspiring Women series also includes Sally Ride, the pioneering astronaut and first American woman in space.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate