Most of “Black Barbie” — the whole first hour of its 90 minutes, to be exact — illuminates that through a long-gestating narrative around representation. Prior to 1980, all Barbies were white.

The newest doll will come with a braided hair texture, pink eyeglasses and clothes with meaningful symbols to represent Down syndrome awareness. Black Barbie with Down syndrome will retail for $10.99.

Barbie has certainly been capturing the hearts of little girls everywhere for more than 60 years, and she’s just as popular ...

Years later, as a chief designer of Mattel’s iconic Barbie doll line, Black Perkins created the first Black Barbie so other children could see themselves in the toy introduced in 1959.

Black Barbie celebrates the momentous impact three Black women at Mattel had on the evolution of the Barbie brand as we know it," read a description from Netflix attached to the trailer.

The first Black male doll was Christie’s boyfriend, Brad, in 1970, followed by Curtis, Cara’s boyfriend, in 1975. In 1982, Sunsational Malibu Ken became the first official Black Ken doll.

Mitchell started on the assembly line at Mattel, the company behind Barbie, in 1955. At the beginning of the ’60s, Mitchell proposed the idea of a Black doll to Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler.

The 2025 doll celebrates the rich heritage of Black Barbie through her dark brown skin and voluminous curly hair. The doll’s dress takes inspiration from its predecessor with its bright red ...

Amirah Kambe is part of the CSUF graduating class of 2025, with a degree in public health. Her resesarch centered on how Black Barbie influences young Black girls’ perception of their hair ...

On the surface, the documentary is about what led to the 1980 release of Black Barbie, but the issues it explores run much deeper: the harm of lacking a “social mirror,” the slow pace of ...