Barbie makes breakthrough with autistic doll

Mattel has launched the toy company’s first autistic Barbie doll, created with guidance from the autistic community to reflect common ways autistic people may experience, process, and communicate with the world around them.

The doll was developed for more than 18 months in partnership with Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), a non-profit disability rights organisation run by and for autistic people that advocates for the rights of the autistic community. The toy joins the Barbie Fashionistas, a collection which Mattel says features a diverse range of skin tones, hair textures, body types, and various medical conditions and disabilities. 

“Barbie has always strived to reflect the world kids see and the possibilities they imagine, and we’re proud to introduce our first autistic Barbie as part of that ongoing work,” says Jamie Cygielman, Mattel global head of dolls. “The doll, designed with guidance from the ASAN, helps to expand what inclusion looks like in the toy aisle and beyond because every child deserves to see themselves in Barbie.”

In collaboration with ASAN, the Barbie design team made intentional design choices for the autistic Barbie doll to reflect some experiences individuals on the autism spectrum may relate to. The doll’s features and accessories include:

• Face and body: Along with a new face sculpt, the autistic Barbie doll features elbow and wrist articulation, enabling stimming, hand flapping, and other hand gestures that some members of the autistic community use to process sensory information or express excitement.  
• Eye gaze: The doll is designed with an eye gaze shifted slightly to the side, which reflects how some members of the autistic community may avoid direct eye contact.
• Accessories: Each doll comes with a pink finger clip fidget spinner, noise-cancelling headphones and a tablet.
  • Fidget spinner: The doll holds a pink finger clip fidget spinner that spins, offering a sensory outlet that can help reduce stress and improve focus.
  • Headphones: Pink noise-cancelling headphones rest on top of the doll’s head as a helpful and fashionable accessory that reduces sensory overload by blocking out background noise.
  • Tablet: A pink tablet showing symbol-based Augmentative and Alternative Communication apps (AAC) on the screen serves as a tool to help with everyday communication.
• Sensory-sensitive fashions: The doll wears a loose-fitting, purple pinstripe A-line dress with short sleeves and a flowy skirt that provides less fabric-to-skin contact. Purple shoes complete the outfit, with flat soles to promote stability and ease of movement.

Colin Killick, ASAN executive director, says: “As proud members of the autistic community, our ASAN team was thrilled to help create the first-ever autistic Barbie doll. It is so important for young autistic people to see authentic, joyful representations of themselves, and that’s exactly what this doll is. 

“Partnering with Barbie allowed us to share insights and guidance throughout the design process to ensure the doll fully represents and celebrates the autistic community, including the tools that help us be independent. We’re honoured to see this milestone come to life, and we will keep pushing for more representation like this that supports our community in dreaming big and living proud.”

As part of the doll launch, Barbie is teaming up with advocates for the autistic community, including autism advocate Nandi Madida and her six-year-old daughter, Nefertiti Madida. Nandi Madida is the founder of the African parenting and family podcast The Motherhood Network, an Apple Music host, and a Gates Foundation creative councillor.

She says: “Barbie has always represented comfort and imagination for me, and becoming a mother to an autistic child has transformed what representation truly means. This autistic Barbie is deeply emotional because it reflects children who are so often left out. For autistic children, seeing themselves in a doll like this affirms that they are seen, valued, and understood exactly as they are.

“For non-autistic children, it becomes a gentle and powerful tool for learning empathy, curiosity, and respect. Play is one of the earliest ways children make sense of the world, and when that world includes neurodiversity, it helps build a future that is more compassionate, informed, and inclusive for everyone.”

Consistent with the Fashionistas dolls representing individuals with type 1 diabetes, Down syndrome and blindness, the autistic Barbie doll was named and created with the community’s guidance to allow more children to see themselves in Barbie. The collection boasts over 175+ looks, and aims to help children better understand the world around them by encouraging doll play outside of a child’s own lived experience.

Building on the importance of feeling understood and connected through play, beginning in 2020, Barbie set out to research the short- and long-term benefits of doll play through a multi-year study with researchers at Cardiff University. The research found that playing with dolls activates parts of children’s brains involved in empathy and social processing skills. In recent years, the study has continued to build on these findings, suggesting that doll play could help develop social skills for all children, including those who display neurodivergent traits commonly associated with autism.