Today marks International Women’s Day (IWD) and we’ve already seen a slew of empowering initiatives and projects announced over the past few weeks to celebrate women.
Leading up to today, we’ve seen the launch of the #MeToo movement and the Time’s Up initiative, followed by Dubai’s W Hotel hosting its first What She Said forum in the Middle East (with Engy El Shazly), Saudi Arabia’s two-day opera and Net-a-Porter’s limited edition T-shirt collection.
Now, here to stay permanently, news has emerged overnight that Mattel has released 15 new Barbie dolls for its ‘Inspiring Women’ and ‘Shero’ collections, to celebrate IWD. Whilst the ‘Inspiring Women’ category features women who have made lifelong contributions to the world, the ‘Shero’ range has been crafted after women who have been currently making headlines.
Among those honoured for the ‘Inspiring Women’ category are three historical icons; aviator Amelia Earhart, artist Frida Kahlo and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.
On the ‘Shero’ front, Barbie looked towards Iranian-born designer Leyla Piedayesh, conservationist Bindi Irwin, British boxer Nicola Adams, American snowboarder Chloe Kim (who recently made headlines for being the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal) and of course, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins (she scored a Critics’ Awards for Best Action Movie earlier this year), for inspiration.
Take a look at the full list of Barbie Sheroes here…
Now, take a look at Barbie’s boundary-breaking doll of Ibtihaj Muhammad (the first US Olympian to compete in a hijab).
