Omg I wrote a reply and it disappeared
So I'll quickly try and repeat it again to save more lost spoons. Speaking of spoons, could Barbie have come with a spoons chart to pace her energy use?
So I have very mixed feelings about this. My initial response was, her dress looks drafty, cold and uncomfy, and her long hair is down and touching her face. Waaaaaaa nope
My thought was she looks too neurotypical based for me, like they've taken a regular doll and just changed a couple of things and thought that'd do. Wondering if they actually got informed about autism, and especially being high masking (that smile!), in women and girls too! Or if they just fudged it based on what they thought they know, minimal effort approach, and concentrating on just having a presence in the market rather than getting it right. I expect even if they did "involve" autistic people in this, it would've been very light touch and not really too influential. More of a let's involved them so we can say we did vibe.
I think I would've been more excited by this if it came as a doll with options that a child (or adult!) could pick to recreate their own autistic experience and preferences etc. Like, both loose fitting clothes and tight fitting clothes options (I don't like loose!!), sunglasses, other stim/sensory toys, maybe, a loud speaker not just ear defenders, flat shoes and other shoe options (yes, some autistic women do also wear heels lol, or slippers!), little weighted blanket, confy PJs, maybe some special interest items, or the barbies not necessarily smiling/a more neutral expression.
Whilst I think normalising, inclusive and relatable toys are generally a good thing, I just get a sense this is purely profit driven and based on proliferance of autistic people publicly now. They didn't lead the charge, they followed after, once the money was going to be there. (Which i get commercially, but i just mean I'm not confusing this for some kind of public act of equality and profile raising from a social/moral pov here, it's not that).
I also just got a sense it could've been made into something much bigger than this level of effort, and probably would have been more excitable and relatable for autistic kids (and adults
) and made the company more profit too. If I was a kid and there were options to add on things relevant to me to an autistic Barbie, I would have been all over that and loved collecting all the options I felt reflected me.
So essentially I think it's both a gimmick AND they missed an opportunity commercially here too. Haha.
Ps. EDITS - can you tell I was a Barbie fan as a kid
I used to place them in scenes and where I thought they "should" be in my Barbie house, and that I got very upset about if anyone moved (my poor NT sister lol). No imaginative play here
Also I have no idea what an AAC is. I feel like we need a thread with autistic tools because it would be so helpful to explore things in case they help but I don't know what is out there. I'm wondering if this AAC is something that will help me on days I can't speak etc or if it's for something else (currently resisting the urge to go down a rabbit hole to find out)
