Covid-19 vaccine creator gets her own Barbie photo from WalesOnline
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Covid-19 vaccine creator gets her own Barbie

Aug 6, 2021, 6:28 AM
Heloise Diamante

Heloise Diamante

Writer

Toy giant Mattel is recognizing the women pioneering Covid-19 vaccine and prevention research, under the new line of Barbie “role model” dolls.

Shortly after Mattel honored athlete and activist Naomi Osaka with her new Barbie, the toy company launched a Barbie doll of the designer of Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine.

British coronavirus vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert is one of the many scientists behind the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and one of the six women in the Covid-19 fight with new Barbies modeled after them.

Mattel is recognizing them under the new line of Barbie “role model” dolls.

Also honored are emergency room nurse Amy O'Sullivan who treated the first Covid-19 patient at the Wycoff Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and Audrey Cruz, the frontline doctor in Las Vegas who fought discrimination.

Chika Stacy Oriuwa, a Canadian psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto who battled systemic racism in healthcare, and Brazilian biomedical researcher Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, who led sequencing of the genome of a Covid-19 variant in Brazil.

The line also includes Kirby White, an Australian doctor who pioneered a surgical gown that can be washed and reused by frontline workers during the pandemic.

"It's a very strange concept having a Barbie doll created in my likeness," Gilbert said in an interview for Mattel. "I hope it will be part of making it more normal for girls to think about careers in science."

Each of the women featured in the doll line has chosen organizations that will receive a financial donation from Mattel. The six dolls in the series will not be for sale unlike the Naomi Osaka dill that sold out within hours last month.

Mattel has several nurse, doctor, scientist, paramedic, and entomologist career Barbie dolls to encourage young women into STEM fields.

Gilbert chose the nonprofit organization WISE (Women in Science & Engineering), dedicated to inspiring girls to consider a career in STEM.

Tags: #Mattel, #Barbiedolls, #science, #rolemodels, #Covid19research


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