Barbie’s new look, one size doesn’t fit all

The brand announced Thursday that along with Barbie’s original body shape, the dolls now come in tall, curvy, and petite.

The California-based toy company will continue to sell the original Barbie that was launched in 1959.

The new bodies are just the latest change for Barbie as Mattel seeks to appeal to girls who have turned to tablets and other toys.

Mattel added 23 new dolls in 2015 with varying skin tones and hair colours but most notably a flat foot. Parents who were extremely upset and frustrated with having to purchase a doll that didn’t quite resemble their child, can rest easy – there’s now a Barbie body type for everyone.

“Barbie has made gestures in the past, but nothing this dramatic”.

As a black woman raising her eldest daughter through the mid-’80s and ’90s, Samantha Kemp-Jackson found little variety among dolls when it came to different shapes, skin tones and abilities – especially with Barbies.

“Hello, I’m a fat person, fat, fat, fat”, one 6-year-old-girl said, when presented with the curvy Barbie.

Barbie’s got a new look – and it doesn’t have anything to do with her job, boyfriend or auto.

As we said at the outset of this article: Well done, Mattel.

“Barbie’s body was never created to be realistic”.

Mattel unveiled petite, tall and curvy versions of its iconic doll on Thursday, saying that they “represent a line that is more reflective of the world girls see around them”. Let’s hope this new line offers more a more positive ideal for young girls than the previous ones.

“This is radical cause we are saying that there isn’t this narrow standard of what a lovely body looks like”, Robert Best, senior director product design explained in “The Evolution of Barbie” video, “This is what our future looks like because this is what the world looks like”.

Mattel, the company that makes Barbie, has been searching for ways to recharges the doll’s sales as “want lists” from girls now often include iPads and other electronic devices.

The new collection is now available to order online and will hit store shelves in spring 2016.