Thursday, February 23, 2012

Barbie's Diabetes


It has crossed my mind before, the idea of having a barbie doll that is suited up to check her blood sugar, give herself some insulin while she enjoys a nice piece of plastic chocolate cake and juice box in case she has a low blood sugar and Ken isn't willing to drive her to the corner store to grab a chocolate bar.

The same idea came to a 7 year old type 1 named Emma, who said she wanted a type 1 barbie, "So kids like me can have a doll just like us and pretend to check her blood sugar when we check check our own. It would be fun to be the same!"

Although all us glamourous girls who may have played with Barbies when we were children never really looked like our perfect, blonde, slim, barbie dolls we always seemed to put our personality into our dolls.  We liked to sing, so we set up concerts for our barbies to sing.   We enjoyed the idea of throwing outrageous parties completed with ballroom dresses and a handsome line up of blonde Ken dolls and driving around in a pink convertible - completely far fetched from anything we really were doing, but it made us feel great knowing that Barbie and her friends were living the dream.

Who didn't want to grow up and be just like Barbie?  A blonde, go-getter.  She was a surfer, dentist, nurse, veterinarian, lifeguard, flight attendant, NASCAR driver and cheerleader.   For many of us, Barbie was our go to toy.   My barbies were all these things, but never did my barbie have some strange disease or illness, because I knew nothing about this!  Although, I do recall having a barbie that came with a wheelchair - but that was the closest thing to showing diversity that I recall.

Emma is looking for a Barbie that is just like her.  Maybe she wants to have Barbie wake up at night, disrupting Ken from his sleep to grab a juice box from her fridge, only to hear Kelly awake in her crib. Or maybe she wants to have Barbie pulling out her insulin pump at the ballroom dinner she is hosting.  Either way, I can see where Emma and most likely many, many other girls her age can go with this diabetic Barbie.

I realize that getting Mattel to even consider this would be a challenge and a half, but why bother with Mattel when the diabetic community is so close knit anyways, let's just start making these Barbie accessories for Barbie and her diabesties, we can stock her fridge with juice boxes and her drawers with Dex Tabs.   Give her a nice site to stick to her stomach and get her insulin pump running. Let's just hope she has benefits, so she can still afford that pink convertible.

Kayla

1 comment:

  1. Mattel has already been asked to create a bald Barbie for girls with cancer who are bald. So I don't see why a campaign for diabetic Barbie and Ken. They'd have to make tiny syringes for those who don't use the pump.

    I never thought about having my babie being a diabetic the few times I played with my sister. And I was 5 when diagnosed. I didn't know anyone else who was a diabetic either. The diabetes was a part of who I was and I accepted that.

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