Barbie Introduces Helen Keller Doll for Inspiring Women Line

Helen Keller is the latest release in the Barbie Inspiring Women Series.

May 19, 2021

Barbie is honoring Helen Keller, the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, as well as an author, speaker, educator and advocate, through its latest release in the Barbie Inspiring Women Series.

The series, showing girls historical and present-day female role models, includes Billie Jean King, Ella Fitzgerald, Florence Nightingale, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Katherine Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks and Sally Ride. Earlier this year, the series added two more, poet and activist, Dr. Maya Angelou, and U.N. spokesperson and First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Now, Helen Keller is the latest to join the lineup.

Barbie teamed up with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the membership and advocacy organization of blind Americans, to ensure the doll and its surroundings are authentic and held to standard for the blind/low-vision community. The partnership included ensuring the Helen Keller Inspiring Women doll was representative of her likeness and making elements

accessible for the blind/low-vision community like having braille on package and on the book the doll is holding.

In addition to the doll carrying a book with molded braille on its cover, the Helen Keller doll wears a striped skirt and blouse with ruffled lace details, inspired by Helen’s time as a student in the early 1900s.

The Helen Keller Inspiring Women doll is available now at retailers nationwide and on Barbie.com.