The "Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let's see if we can get it made" campaign, which began in early December, reported about 15,000 fans on Wednesday morning. Today, the page has more than 37,000 fans (I witnessed a 600 fan jump in a 15-minute time span last night).
The creators of the fan page say, "We would like to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie made to help young girls who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatments, Alopecia or Trichotillomania. Also, for young girls who are having trouble coping with their mother's hair loss from chemo. Many children have some difficulty accepting their mother, sister, aunt, grandparent or friend going from a long haired to a bald." [sic]
I commend these women for wanting to shed a greater light on the issue of how young girls are affected by cancer and other diseases, whether it is directly or indirectly. It is difficult enough growing up in a society where they are bombarded with looking a certain way, being the perfect size and wearing the right clothes and accessories without then having to try to fit in with their peers when they’ve lost their hair.
Reportedly, the two women, the growing fan base and others have deluged the Mattel company – maker of Barbie – with letters and phone calls, with their vote to create a new doll that would be so inspirational to tens of thousands young girls and would teach millions of others a little more about acceptance.
Mattel confirms it has received the requests, but reportedly doesn’t take ideas from outside sources. However, if the toy company does decide to create a doll for this segment of society, I’m not sure if I’m entirely on board with the idea.
