I made a post a bit ago about how there's so many winter sports themed Barbies that I had to narrow it down to just one to write a post about it.
Well I thought I'd try that again by exploring some different winter sports!
There's quite a few skier Barbies, like Ski Fun Barbie, or the Skier Barbie from the Pink Passport range. This one also happens to be a Made to Move body, so as fully articulated as Barbies get.
At times she even brings the rest of the Roberts family with her; like with the Skiing Vacation playset.
This one is kind of cool because it comes with a chair lift, but it does invite one or two questions. It comes with Stacie and Kelly, and the box advises that the chair lift is big enough to "fit all 3 sisters". Of course, we all know there's at least one canonical sister missing from this set. Did they not invite Skipper? Does Skipper not like skiing? The rest of the family seems to. Even Chelsea, after she changes her name, continues to ski.
Barbie's passion for skiing dates back to at least the 1970s, when she participated in the Olympic Games as a skier.
And had an Olympic Ski Village to match.
Which is one of the cooler playsets associated with skiing, actually. I really like it.
But the top tier ski-themed Barbie that I really wanted to talk about was Para Alpine Skier Barbie.
A Barbie who uses adaptive skis! She was designed in collaboration with Paralympian Sarah Will, who is on record saying that the design of her equipment and body positioning is very accurate.
Mattel's commitment to increased diversity and inclusivity has come under some criticism for being, well, less well thought out than they like to say - but every time I see an example that does seem to land really well, I want to draw attention to it and celebrate it!
