The famous British scientist Jane Goodall now has a Barbie in her image, made partly with recycled plastic, accompanied by binoculars, a blue notebook and above all, the famous chimpanzee David Greybeard.
“I’ve been saying for a long time that girls today don’t just want to be movie stars; many like me want to be in nature and study animals,” commented the mother of the chimpanzees at the launch of the new Mattel toy.
It is not the first time the company has created Barbies inspired by women of science. For example, the Sarah Gilbert doll, co-creator of the anti-Covid vaccine, was launched recently.
When she was little, there were no female models, says Goodall. Her heroes and role models were Tarzan and Doctor Dolittle. No women were doing the kind of things “I wanted to do”, she says.