Why the Autistic Barbie Matters
Today Mattel launched their autistic Barbie - a doll with pink noise-cancelling headphones, a fidget spinner, sensory sensitive clothing, an AAC tablet, an eye gaze slightly to the side, and fully bendable wrists and elbows to allow repetitive movements like stimming and hand-flapping.
I am SO emotional.
Representation matters. Autistic children will now be able to have their own autistic Barbie. This is important for so many reasons.
Autistic girls are far more likely to be missed or diagnosed late (even more so if they are from marginalised ethnic groups). For decades, people thought girls weren’t autistic or autism affected boys more. This Barbie challenges that outdated narrative and shows everyone that girls are autistic too!
91% autistic people (according to one study) said that society either does not accept them or only sometimes accepts them (Cage et al. 2018). When autism is portrayed in children’s toys, it is a step closer to acceptance being the norm - because the toys children grow up shapes how they understand difference, the world, and others.
Seeing yourself represented matters. It promotes inclusion (Jones et al., 2022) and helps children develop a sense of belonging (Style, 1996). When an autistic child sees themselves in a toy, this tells them that they are not alone. Their existence matters. And there is nothing ‘wrong’ with who they are.
Autistic children are much more likely to experience bullying than their non-autistic peers. One of the causes of bullying is a lack of understanding of difference - something that representation in children’s toys could help to target.
Research has shown that when disabilities are portrayed more prominently and positively in every day situations, people develop greater empathy, understanding and acceptance towards disabled people.
Some people have said that one doll can’t represent autistic people. And that is true. Of course it can’t. Mattel themselves have stated that. But the point is that some autistic kids will now recognise themselves when previously they wouldn’t have.
This matters. This is a good day. Thank you Mattel and Barbie!
GIRL UNMASKED (The Sunday Times Bestseller) is available to order from Amazon and all major bookstores as a hardback, paperback, audiobook and ebook.
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