Barbie Is a Vlogger Now, & Her Videos Are Surprisingly Woke

“Sorry is a learned reflex, and every time we do it, we take away from our self-confidence."

Date July 26, 2018

For the past 59 years, Barbie hasn’t exactly been the best friend to feminism. Her perfect plastic hips present a damaging beauty ideal; her head is literally filled with air; she struggles to represent a society that’s racially diverse. But things are turning around for the notoriously preppy, platinum-haired doll: in the year 2018, Barbie is rebranding herself as somewhat of a progressive icon.

You’re probably already familiar with some of the moves made to make Barbie more “inclusive”: sometime’s she’s curvy, she’s LGBT-friendly, she has a career in STEM and she’s friends with dolls like Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Muslim-American woman to wear a hijab while competing in a fencing competition. Her modern awakening is, essentially, a calculated business decision made by Mattel in an effort to win over today’s millennial parents. But hey…that doesn’t mean we childless adult-millennials can’t appreciate her newfound liberal allegiances! Like, for example, this photo posted to the official BarbieStyle Instagram channel, which pictures Barbie in a series of photos with another doll, Aimee, wearing “Love Wins” T-Shirt. (It’s great, I know.)

Proud to wear this “Love Wins” shirt with @songofstyle! Did you know that her exclusive t-shirts benefit different causes and non-profits? Such an inspiring initiative and fabulous few days I have spent with Aimee, she’s a doll! ? #barbie #barbiestyle

A post shared by Barbie® (@barbiestyle) on Nov 21, 2017 at 2:36pm PST

And her wokeness branches out to her other social channels, too. On YouTube, Barbie is helping people to live their best life with meditation guides, motivational talks about dealing with depression and interviews with real life role models like Misty Copeland. Her most recent vlog, “Sorry Reflex,” tops the must-watch list: in a surprisingly feminist pep-talk, Barbie sits down in her very pink bedroom and breaks down a problematic word that girls are over-using.

“I have some ideas about sorry,” Barbie says in the two-minute video. “I think there’s a bigger issue around ‘sorry’, especially with girls. We say it a lot. Like, a lot. Like it’s a reflex, and that somehow everything that goes wrong is our fault.”

She then discuss the many situations in which we tend to use the word: when we ask a waiter to reheat your food, or when someone bumps into us. “Sorry is a learned reflex, and every time we do it, we take away from our self-confidence,” the animated doll concludes, challenging her viewers to drop the word from their vocabulary and offering them alternative choices.

Here’s my tip for women: like, subscribe, and all that vlogger jazz, because Barbie’s YouTube videos are a treasure trove of unexpectedly useful advice for women of all ages.