Civil rights icon Rosa Parks and Sally Ride, the first American woman and youngest American to travel into space, have been made into Barbies.
The dolls were released on Monday, August 26, under Barbie’s Inspiring Women collection, and they both come with pertinent information so children can know the significant roles they played in history.
According to the senior vice president and global head of Barbie dolls at Mattel, Inc. Lisa McKnight, the purpose of the dolls are to show girls their potential is boundless, and they should develop the mindset to challenge things that seem wrong.
“As a brand that is dedicated to inspiring the limitless potential in every girl, Barbie is shining a spotlight on role models, historical and modern, to show them they can be anything,” McKnight told HuffPost.
“Both Sally Ride and Rosa Parks are changemakers, so these dolls celebrate their achievements, while also encouraging girls to challenge the status quo,” she added.
Both dolls go for $30.99 on the Barbie website, and on the product description it says both women “Changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.”
In 1955 Parks refused to follow a Montgomery, Alabama, ordinance on city buses that required her to give up her seat to white passengers.
Four days after she was arrested, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, which ran from December 1955 to December 1956., ending when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional. Montgomery was forced to end racial discrimination in its bus system.
Parks passed away in 2005 from natural causes at the age of 92 in Detroit. Ride died at 61 in La Jolla, California, in 2012 from pancreatic cancer.
