Barbie: First Step Down Syndrome, Second Step Average Female Body Type

Even Victoria’s Secret is doing it

In doll news this week, Mattel has just announced that it’s launching a new Down syndrome version of Barbie in an effort to be more inclusive now that Down syndrome exists.

I’m pleased to see the Barbie market branching out into new territory; when I was growing up, the only kind of Barbie with any sort of special needs or unique traits you could find was a Barbie with brown eyes.

I think I once had a Barbie with bangs, too, if that counts.

If you were a child in the ’90s and ever, for whatever reason, wanted to find a doll that deviated from the classically beautiful, unattainably proportioned Barbie, you had to venture into off-brand territory.

But that usually never worked out. And I know that because of Tammy.

Less like your hot babysitter, more like your mom’s friend from book club

In the thick of my Barbie years, my mom gifted me a new doll that her creators named “Tammy.”

Tammy was like a knockoff Barbie, but her whole selling point was that she had a more conventional appearance.