It’s been 22 years since I hit the headlines for becoming the first girl in Britain to own a Barbie doll in a wheelchair.
As a child, I hated my wheelchair. To me, it was a symbol of inability and difference when I just wanted to be like my friends at mainstream school. My parents were desperate to find anything that convinced me that a wheelchair was anything but my preconceived ideas of it.
The shelves have been clear of largely manufactured disability representation since Mattel’s ‘Share a Smile Becky’ doll was released in 1997. Although only available in the US, my Mum sourced one from Toys R Us and Barbie’s new, wheelchair-using best friend arrived on my fifth birthday. Suddenly, my Barbie doll and my wheelchair were the talk of the playground and the national media. Becky made my wheelchair acceptable to me for the first time.
Although the doll sold out within the first two weeks of its release, it didn’t take long for Share a Smile Becky to be completely pulled from the shelves, after consumers realised that she didn’t fit inside Barbie’s dream house. Disability access ironically made the toy world inaccessible once again.
This week, Mattel has re-released a Barbie in a wheelchair and she has been welcomed with opened arms. This time, she isn’t a spin off; she’s actual Barbie, in a modern, active wheelchair, and she brings with her, a friend with a prosthetic leg. They are part of a new fashionista range, which sees Barbie take on new shapes, sizes, skin tones and disabilities to create a more realistic and diverse image.
Although I know that Barbie isn’t the top of everyone’s birthday list, as she once was, I know from online reaction that this Barbie is going to be a big hit. She’s the new representation of what modern day disability can look like.
It can be active, it can be stylish, and it can be independent; it doesn’t have to be big, heavy wheelchairs or a lifetime of being pushed around. Her redesign has her showing off a blue and chrome, self propelled, low backed, sporty wheelchair, making her fashionable and desirable, instead of resembling something from the dark ages.
With the London 2012 Paralympic legacy slowly fading, and children that play with dolls being younger than my first gold medals, disability is getting harder and harder to see.
At five years old, I had never met another person in a wheelchair, or anyone else with a disability. I felt completely different and alone until my ‘Share a Smile Becky’ arrived and proved to me that I am not the only person in the world with unique difficulties.
I would hate to think that any child feels that way now and I hope that Mattel’s newest creation can prove to every child, that they are not so different. I hope to see wheelchair users and those with other disabilities being accepted into new friendships groups at school, I hope the new toy encourages a drop in disability related bullying and most of all, I hope that Barbie encourages a new level of confidence and creativity in people with a disability.
For many, Barbie’s wheelchair will be the first they see in their lifetime. I pass so many children that point at me and ask ‘why is that lady in a pushchair’ or ‘why does that lady walk funny’? Barbie’s recreation could be the end of that and be the first lesson towards acceptance and accessibility in society, as younger children are exposed to something ‘different’ earlier in life. If this happens at an early age, it could go a long way to ending prejudice and stereotypes later in life, and hopefully see a reduction in disability exclusion.
Its great to see Barbie evolving to better replicate the world that children live in. Let’s hope this Barbie stays on the shelves, as I’ll be first in line to buy one!
MORE: Mattel launches Barbie in a wheelchair and one with a prosthetic leg
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