Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes, an insulin infuser and pump with a heart-shaped patch.

A short blue sundress with sky-blue polka dots, matching shoes and bag. But Mattel's new Barbie doll has a heart-shaped patch on her left arm, an insulin pump around her waist, and a glucose monitor in her blue purse. Because the new Barbie, like hundreds of thousands of children around the world, has type 1 diabetes. And to design her, Mattel collaborated with Breakthrough T1D, the former American foundation for juvenile diabetes research, with the goal of sending a message of inclusion, starting with the 304,000 American children living with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. This destruction leads to insufficient insulin production, resulting in increased blood glucose levels. Although typically diagnosed in childhood, about 18,000 in Italy—which was one of the first countries to introduce the test at birth—diagnosis at a later age is not uncommon.

The Diabetes Kit 1

Returning to Barbie, the doll most beloved by girls around the world has an insulin pump at her waist, a continuous glucose monitor on her left arm, covered with a heart-shaped patch, and her smartphone displaying a glucose monitoring app. In her purse, she carries some snacks to help her monitor her blood sugar levels throughout the day. Matching her shoes and polka-dot dress, of course. Not only that, but Barbie's phone display shows her current blood sugar level, 130 milligrams per deciliter, which is within the normal range, given that most type 1 diabetes sufferers try to keep their levels between 70 and 180. Her monitor also has a graph showing the highs and lows of her levels throughout the day.

Collaboration with those who are sick

Emily Mazreku , director of marketing and communications for Breakthrough T1D, has type 1 diabetes and personally collaborated with Mattel on the design of the new Barbie, spending two years working with focus groups to understand how well the new doll’s design worked and how much its features were understandable to the entire type 1 diabetes community.

"Mattel contacted us," she said, "and we jumped at the chance. It was a very important opportunity for us to send clear and understandable messages to everyone. I knew it was working when I brought the Barbie home and showed it to my three-year-old daughter, and she looked at it and said it looked like her mom. She doesn't have type 1 diabetes, but she sees me living with the disease every day. For her, seeing Barbie as her mom was extraordinary."

The Italian Diabetes Society

“Barbie with type 1 diabetes represents an important sign of inclusion, awareness and normalization of living with type 1 diabetes, especially in pediatric and adolescent age – comments Raffaella Buzzetti , president of SID, Italian Diabetes Society – this initiative contributes to fighting stigma and strengthening the identity of girls and boys who live with diabetes every day”.

Other Barbies with disabilities

The Type 1 Diabetes Barbie continues Mattel's tradition of inclusivity. Among the more than 175 different models, there are Barbies with various skin tones, Barbies with hearing aids, a blind Barbie with her dog, and another with a prosthetic leg. Then there's a Barbie with vitiligo, a condition that lightens the skin on certain areas of the body, often including the face and hands. The Barbie with Down syndrome and the blind Barbie were the most successful dolls worldwide in 2024. And who could not mention the Barbie with a wheelchair, released in 1997, whose wheelchair couldn't fit through the door of the Barbie house, as many consumers with the same problem complained?

The mirror for children

You don't have to be a psychologist to understand how beloved dolls like Barbie, with such evident and widespread disabilities, can help both children who live with disabilities every day and those who aren't disabled. If dolls, like children's books, are mirrors of what children see, then it's good for them to see that there are differences, which need to be understood, starting from small, everyday behaviors. Sian Jones , co-founder of the Toy Box Diversity Lab at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, argues, for example, that when children play with dolls that have mobility issues, it helps them identify with and understand the difficulties of those who actually experience those difficulties in real life. "When Barbie in a wheelchair couldn't get into the nursery class, they had to build a ramp to allow her to do so," specified Jones, who lives with cerebral palsy. But that's not all: the American foundation also hopes that this new Barbie will help unlock funding for research into the disease, which expires in September: they too could be victims of cuts to American healthcare.