First Barbie with white cane gives children with sight loss a doll “that looks like them”

Royal National Insitute of Blind People (RNIB) has welcomed the release of a Barbie’s first doll with sight loss as part of the Fashionista range.

“Barbie is all about joy – about discovering and understanding the world through play – and it’s wonderful to think that children with a vision impairment can now play with a Barbie that looks like them,” RNIB’s director of customer advice and support, Debbie Miller, shared.

“This is a positive step forward in helping children and adults with sight loss feel like they belong and are recognised,” she said.

Alongside the doll’s cane, with a distinctive marshmallow tip, the Barbie has articulated elbows to ensure comfortable cane use and is dressed in clothes that provide tactile interest – including a satin blouse and ruffled skirt.

Mattel took on board feedback from children with sight loss as part of the development process. There is a high contrast hook and loop fasteners on the doll’s top and an elastic skirt waistband to make swapping outfits easier. The word Barbie is written in braille on the packaging for the doll.

British broadcaster and disability activist, Lucy Edwards, shared that the doll’s release “makes me feel so seen.”

“As a teenager, I felt isolated by losing my eyesight and not seeing role models like me. I was embarrassed by my cane – but knowing Barbie had a cane would have made me feel so differently about mine and helped me feel less alone on my journey to accept and embrace my blindness. It means everything to me,” she said.

Edwards, who experienced sight loss as a result of the genetic condition incontinentia pigmenti, has a large following on YouTube and TikTok. In 2019, she became BBC Radio 1’s first blind presenter.

In developing the doll, Barbie partnered with the American Foundation for the Blind to ensure that the product details – from doll sculpting, clothes and accessories to the packaging experience – accurately depict those with sight loss.

Main image: British broadcaster and disability activist, Lucy Edwards, with the first Barbie doll to portray sight loss.