Syracuse, N.Y- Celebrating influential women in healthcare, Mattel used its dolls to highlight the stories of the six workers as part of its #ThankYouHeroes program. Barbie dolls were transformed into female frontline workers in the medical field to debut real-life heroes during the pandemic.
Mattel released in a press statement that the #ThankYouHeroes program was created to honor individuals who helped fight against COVID-19, as well as the everyday heroes who have kept communities up and running.
The company designed each doll to the likeness of each frontline worker creating a doctor, general practitioner, nurse, biomedical researcher, psychiatrist and professor as part of its collection.
Upstate Medical student Loma Dave says these dolls would have influenced herself and others growing up.
“I think it’s amazing and would have been cool to have something like that growing up to play with Barbies that would be in the career that I wanted to be,” Dave said. “When your little dolls are something you idolize so having frontline workers during the pandemic be recognized shows the true value of what we do.”
The global lineup of the one-of-a-kind dolls includes a frontline worker from Nevada, Dr. Audrey Su Cruz, who joined forces with Asian Americans physicians to fight against Anti-Asian bias and discrimination during the pandemic.
An Australian general practitioner Dr.Kirby White co-founded Gowns for Doctors by creating personal protective equipment (PPE) gowns that could be re-used by other frontline workers.
Emergency room nurse Amy O’Sullivan treated the first COVID-19 patient in Brooklyn, New York, where she soon became ill after treating the patient in Wyckoff Heights Medical Center but returned to continue to care for others.
Biomedical researcher Dr. Jaqueline Goes de Jesus lead the sequencing of the COVID-19 variant in Brazil.
Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa, a psychiatrist at the University of Toronto, Canada, advocated against systematic racism in healthcare after the pandemic heightened hate crimes towards the Asian community.
Professor Sarah Gilbert led the development of the vaccine at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
The company also announced they will donate $5 for each Barbie doctor, nurse or paramedic doll sold at Target stores. All proceeds will go to the First Responders Children’s Foundation.
