When you think of Barbie, you probably think of a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, impossibly proportioned doll like this.
Well, now she's got company. You can add her tall, petite, and curvy friends to the club. Mattel just launched three new dolls aimed at making more body types and sizes available to Barbie fans.
The new 2016 Barbie Fashionistas line includes seven skin tones, 18 eye colors, and 18 hairstyles, in addition to the three new body types.
The change came out of a two-year design initiative from Mattel.
The initiative was aimed at pushing the brand to think about "progress not perfection," Evelyn Mazzocco, the general manager of Barbie, said in a video for Time.
It was motivated by dwindling sales — sales of the toy dropped 16% in 2014 alone — and a weakening public perception of the brand.
"I think parents were saying that Barbie was a bad role model for girls, that she represents an unrealistic body type," said branding and strategy consultant Jess Weiner in the video.
Barbie's lack of real proportions even inspired designer Nickolay Lamm to create the Lammily doll in 2014.
Here are the collection's petite, tall, and curvy dolls lined up against the standard Barbie.
In June 2015, the line expanded its range to include a wider array of skin tones...
...and a greater variety of ethnicities.
So far, the response to the new dolls has been mostly positive.
Curvy Barbie? She represents the first institutional voice to ever tell me my body type is pretty *now*, not in some golden past.
omg I'm in love with the "curvy" Barbie. I want one. Hell, I'm getting one. https://t.co/sr8xZl3Gep
Thank you @Barbie for bravely acknowledging that women can be "Curvy," "Tall" or "Petite" & not just "Original" !!!
Though some noted there is still room to grow.
where is trans barbie
And other remained skeptical of Barbie's new ~makeover~.
Barbie was Patient Zero in the pinkification pandemic that has infected girls' toys. A makeover doesn't fix that. https://t.co/4RXA0Rmibu
The collection will be available in store on March 1, and is available for preorder right now.
