Strong women have always been a part of society, but it does feel like we’ve only finally begun to really accept them for what they are. The Covid-19 pandemic and the search for a vaccine had many women in prominent positions, and Mattel, the company behind the Barbie dolls, felt like it was the perfect opportunity to give young girls all over the planet some new role models.
Sadly, the dolls are custom one-of-a-kind dolls, but let’s take a look at the new Barbie dolls whose life goals go beyond “make Ken love me.”
Jaqueline Góes de Jesus (Brazil)
This lovely Brazilian woman was probably one of the most important people in the Latin American fight against Covid-19. She was part of the team that completed the first genetic sequencing of the virus in Latin America, which is pretty much step one when trying to cure a disease.
Professor Sarah Gilbert (UK)
We’ve all heard a lot about all the different kinds of vaccines that were created against the Covid-19 virus. Well, professor Gilbert was the leading lady of the creation of the Oxford vaccine – better known as the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Audrey Cruz (US)
Audrey was a front line physician in Las Vegas when the pandemic broke out. Her biggest hope with this doll is that she gets to be a representation for working moms and minorities in America. Naturally, she also wants to show young girls that they can be anything they want to be.
Amy O’Sullivan (US)
This veteran nurse had the somewhat dubious honor of treating the first Covid-19 patient in New York City. Naturally, this in turn made her ill, but she just got straight back to work after she’d recovered from Covid. It’s no surprise that she made the top 100 of the most influential people in 2020 according to TIME magazine.
Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa (Canada)
This young woman, a psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto, has been battling systemic racism in healthcare since long before the pandemic but took it upon herself to turn things up a notch during the Covid-19 crisis.
Dr. Kirby White (Australia)
One of the biggest problems in a pandemic is that contact with patients is a dangerous thing in and of itself. Dr. Kirby White helped design gowns that were single use, which allowed doctors to keep seeing their patients even during the worst moments of the pandemic.
