Barbie is an icon meant to exemplify all the different aspirations for young girls to become: teachers, astronauts, and President of the United States. With the recent push for the line to become more in inclusive, Mattel has started putting forward dolls that do not fit their typical mold: disabled Barbies in wheelchair, with hearing aids and prosthetic legs, and a Ken doll with vitiligo. Mattel also partnered with CureSearch to create Brave Barbie: a bald Barbie doll undergoing chemotherapy for young cancer patients. Most recently, Mattel released a Barbie doll with Down syndrome.
But addiction and mental health are still underrepresented. There’s no aspirational doll with addiction or mental health issues. Where is the Barbie doll that went to Rehab to get treatment and fights to overcome the disease of addiction?Where’s Barbie with a Prozac prescription or a one year sober coin? Where is the Ken doll who got addicted to pain killers after getting shoulder surgery?
Rehab Barbie is aspirational and inspirational for anyone who deals with addiction or mental health issues. She is a rockstar who fights to overcome one of this countries most debilitating illnesses and looked cute as hell while doing it.