Growing up, I, like many girls, had a Barbie doll ... but for young Black girls to see their beauty is also valued. Naomi Parris (she/her) is a New York-based fashion and beauty writer with ...

Barbie was a a firefighter, a teacher, an actor, a lifeguard, a doctor. But it wasn’t until 1976, when Kitty Black Perkins joined the brand as Chief Designer of Fashion Doll concepts ...

But Black Barbie wasn’t just a sales success for ... but were followed up by the Asha Barbies — a trio of Black Barbies wearing fashion inspired by African textiles — in 1994.

After Mattel’s culture sweeping debut of Barbie in 1959, it took nearly 17 years for the brand to come out with a version of the collectible doll that represented more than one type of skin color.