Today, the Barbie brand in partnership with Black Girls Code launched it’s first Robotics Engineer Barbie, a doll designed to pique girls’ interest in STEM ( Science Technology Engineering Mathematics), a field that many girls look over due to society shifting the narrative over decades.
According to a study only 24 percent of STEM jobs are held by woman, and to add a smaller number by Black/Latino women.
This career doll imitiative is to shine a light on an underrepresented career field for women and to inspire little girls that you can grow up and be in STEM career as well.
The Robotics Engineer Barbie joins a lineup of more than 200 careers held by Barbie, all of which reinforce the brand’s purpose to inspire the limitless potential in every girl.
The launch of the STEM Barbie doesn’t stop there for an initiative to inspire little girls, Mattel has also teamed up Tynker, the number one game-based platform that has helped over 60 million children let coding, with a multi-year partnership. The partnership entails six free Barbie-inspired coding experiences starting today at tynker.com/BarbieYCBA
These lessons are designed to teach logic, problem-solving and the building blocks of coding while casting young learners in different roles alongside Barbie. By leveraging Mattel’s strong portfolio of brands, this ongoing collaboration reinforces Tynker’s mission of making coding and STEM education accessible and appealing to all students by meeting them where their interests lie and providing them with the foundational tools they need to learn to code.
“For almost 60 years, Barbie has exposed girls to roles where women are underrepresented to show them that they can be anything,” said Lisa McKnight, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Barbie. “By playing with Robotics Engineer Barbie on and offline, we are giving girls a new platform for play in their imaginary world and teaching them important skills for their real world.”
This is not the first time Barbie has explored STEM – since 1959, Barbie has held STEM roles including astronaut, scientist, video game developer and computer engineer. The brand also partners with experts in the field to ensure these dolls are an authentic representation of the profession and coding skills.
“Our mission is to empower youth to become the makers of tomorrow through coding, and the Barbie brand is an ideal partner to help us introduce programming to a large number of kids in a fun, engaging way,” said Krishna Vedati, co-founder and CEO, Tynker. “It’s critical that all young learners have an opportunity to explore the possibilities available in STEM fields, and Tynker’s Barbie programming experience is a valuable tool to introduce kids of all ages to these concepts while building their coding skills.”
To further pique girls’ interest in STEM and expand on storytelling possibilities, the Barbie brand is also:
- Partnering with Black Girls CODE – providing a grant of support to Black Girls CODE and gifting dolls at robotics workshops to reach young girls interested in developing skills in the field.
- Debuting more Tynker coding content – continuing its multi-year partnership with Tynker to introduce seven lessons throughout the year and again timed to Hour of Code in December.
- Releasing a Coding e–book – in collaboration with Information Science Professor and Coder Casey Fiesler, PhD, Barbie is releasing Code Camp for Barbie and Friends. The e-book is a kid-friendly introduction to the concepts of code and will be available for sale on Amazon.com.
The launch of Robotics Engineer Barbie is another example of how the Barbie brand is dedicated to highlighting #MoreRoleModels to show girls they can be anything. A new video, launching today, highlights career fields underrepresented by women with a call-to-action to inspire the next generation of girls.
Robotics Engineer Barbie is available today in four skin tones for $13.99 on Barbie.com and Amazon.com. For more information on Tynker and the larger program, please visit www.barbie.com/coding.