Mattel Release Robotics Engineer Barbie
29 June 2018 at 2:33 pm
The manufacturer of the famous Barbie doll, has joined forces with not for profit Black Girls Code to create a doll to inspire young girls to pursue Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
Mattel, which has created more than 180 different career dolls such as President Barbie, Teacher Barbie and Doctor Barbie amongst others, is hoping to inspire young girls to pursue any career choice they like through its campaign #MoreRoleModels.
The latest doll is available in four different skin tones and is a robotics engineer who comes with her own safety goggles, tools, computer and robot. She has been named this year’s “Career of the Year” doll.
According to Black Girls Code’s website, its goal is to “provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the US by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040”.
It’s latest partnership with Mattel hopes to encourage more girls to get excited about subjects – and eventually jobs – within the STEM field, as at present just 24 per cent of this field is made up of women.
Mattel is also calling on its long-standing partnership with Tyner to launch seven free Barbie-inspired coding experiences available online giving girls an interactive experience at coding through the gaming platform.
It is also releasing a coding e-book for kids in collaboration with information science professor and coder Casey Fiesler called Code Camp for Barbie and Friends. The e-book will introduce youngsters to different kinds of coding and will be sold through Amazon.com
