Mattel have made an autistic Barbie

[IwishIwasacaterpillar]

I find this quite odd. Autism doesn’t have a look.
my child is autistic and I would not have bought them one when they were young

Indeed. And as for the 'ridiculousness' of Crohns Disease Barbie - a barbie with a stoma / seperate stoma bag accessory would be a really good idea.

Speaking as someone who has had a stoma.

My DD loves her wheelchair Barbie! She specifically wanted it (we are all completely able bodied in our family).

She has the ambulance too and likes them to all have gruesome accidents…….

Those are physical differences. Autism is not a physical difference so cannot be accurately represented by a doll.

As a parent of an autistic DS, I think it's fine. Yes, it does lean to certain autistic stereotypes and obviously all Barbies could be autistic - because there's no one "look." But it's good for autistic children to see themselves represented. My DS loves it when we can point out people who are ND on TV etc., and also getting to the stage of being more self-conscious about some of his assistive devices (like ear defenders). Normalising these is a good thing.

I think it’s great, I have an autistic daughter and she definitely does have a look because people always ask me if she’s autistic even when she isn’t doing anything at all. I get asked all the time. She would love this and it actually does look like her 😆

A few years ago when my asd child was in Smyths, they saw all the disabled Barbies, and asked where was asd Barbie. I think it's great that there's a huge range of Barbies. We have wheelchair Ken, Barbie ,and Chelsea. We won't be getting asd Barbie as my child has recently stopped lining up Barbies, so this is just a little late for us

So just Barbie with ‘ASD Props’?

Because that’s what this reduces it to.

ah okay. That makes sense.

i wonder if other companies have made dolls with stomas etc.,

Yeah this. Have all the accessories available to buy but I guess people won't keep buying new barbies then which is their ultimate aim

Yes, it is so important to see oneself represented, that is why there are dolls with different skin tones, etc. There are children out there whose confidence could be really boosted by being given a doll that depicts the same medical condition that they may have.

There are children out there whose confidence could be really boosted by being given a doll that depicts the same medical condition that they may have.

I get that but autism isn't a medical condition. My dd is autistic and nothing this doll has represents her so tbh she would just be offended by the assumptions it has made about autistic people.

Didn't Barbie gave a friend who was in a wheelchair?

You can get those though maybe not your eyerolly."mental health" Barbie !

After seeing what the doll looks like do you not think little girls would like it ? I personally thought it was a bit odd because i only caught a part of the article on tv, but after seeing the doll i thought well it is an attempt and effort gone into creating the doll.

I knew that you could get Barbies with physical disabilities and I can see why that’s a good thing but this reduces autism to stereotypes. Interesting about the eyes looking to the side but not considering a closed mouth to convey a different expression to other Barbies.

There are a lot of adult collectors of Barbies - I wonder if these are aimed at that market rather than children?

It would not mean anything to your child then. That is fine. Not all children with autism are the same, of course.

Why "no way".
A wheelchair using Barbie has been around for donkeys years. The others (ie amputee) have been around for a few years now.
You don't need links. Just look on any toyshop website.

Several.
The boy dolls too.
They're hardly unusual.

It's great the Barbie has lots of accessories, so that the person playing with it can adapt to what they use. We don't use fidget spinners, but we do use ear defenders.
For those making comments regarding the "differences" to the standard Barbies, the blind Barbie is also a standard Barbie with a walking stick, the deaf Barbie is a standard Barbie with a hearing aid, the wheelchair dolls are standard dolls with wheelchairs.
You could use any Barbie for any condition. The only ones I can think of that are slightly different, are the amputee and down syndrome dolls.

🙄

I think it's a great idea. Representation matters. The eyes thing is something not many think about. Me and my dd have a great 'tism radar, we can spot it a mile off and it is always in the eyes.

If you/your child don't like them then don't buy one.

Yeah, I saw this. Nothing like leaning into narrowly defined and limiting stereotypes of female autism, then, is there?

Sorry, but autism presents in various degrees of disability and as the mother of a son with autism I find this laughable.
Autism isn't one size fits all and it certainly is not identifiable by physical traits and general appearance.

I think its silly, they did a T1d barbie not long ago but that actually has a look (cgm, pump etc) no autistic person is the same and they dont have a specific look either.

but this reduces autism to stereotypes.

^This.

If autism often feels like "I'm not like them" then this Barbie will further reinforce that feeling but worse as most will feel they don't associate with a popular image of autism.