Posted on 01/13/2026 1:13:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
The doll was expected to be available at Mattel's online shop and at Target stores starting Monday for a suggested retail price of $11.87.
Mattel Inc. is introducing an autistic Barbie on Monday as the newest member of its line intended to celebrate diversity, joining a collection that already includes Barbies with Down syndrome, a blind Barbie, a Barbie and a Ken with vitiligo, and other models the toymaker added to make its fashion dolls more inclusive.
Mattel said it developed the autistic doll over more than 18 months in partnership with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights and better media representation of people with autism. The goal: to create a Barbie that reflected some of the ways autistic people may experience and process the world around them, according to a Mattel news release.
That was a challenge because autism encompasses a broad range of behaviors and difficulties that vary widely in degree, and many of the traits associated with the disorder are not immediately visible, according to Noor Pervez, who is the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's community engagement manager and worked closely with Mattel on the Barbie prototype.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcphiladelphia.com ...
It is an inanimate doll. How the heck does a doll express autism?
They already introduced a Barbie with Downs Syndrome.
Not all people with autism are inanimate.
those memes are screaming for an snl skit if there isn’t one already.
I’m gonna predict it right now:
“MTG BARBIE”
(hit send too soon)
MTG Barbie would come with:
“BBBButch body”
Bleach kit
Interchangable faces so she can talk out of both sides of her mouth
Federal pension
Inspection port to verify brain is absent
Pet cougar
Is this even real?
</LOL!>
And a Tourette Syndrome Barbie.
Just thinking.... Is there an ugly fat Barbie “Karen” to go along with autistic Barbie?
Or was that a feature of the original Barbie?
Austic Barbie? No! Barbie is a high-priced call girl/prostitute. How else can she afford the lifestyle she has!
Her origins go back to post-WW2 Germany and her original name was Lilli who was featured as a popular comic character in the “Bild-Zeitung” newspaper. She was known as Bild-Lilli and eventually became popular enough to have a doll created that was marketed to men which sold in tobacco shops and adult stores.
I don’t remember; you’d have to ask my younger Sister. She had one back in the late-50s/early-60s. Somehow, I dfon’t think they had that ‘feature’ on the ‘checklist’, back then.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.