Mattel has introduced many new Barbies that help girls role-model science based careers; a much better approach to patterning than when Barbie famously uttered "math is hard".
This year, Astronaut Barbie ($7.19) and Astrophysicist Barbie ($9.99) are available. Both of these dolls go a long way to showing that Barbie is capable of doing a lot more than just driving around in her pink sports car looking for Ken.
I came across an interesting issue, however, when looking at Barbie Robotic Engineer (from $14.99). This doll comes in at least four models. One has pink hair, another looks like plain-vanilla Barbie, and there are two African-American dolls feature straight or afro hairdos, respectively. Each doll comes with a mini-pretend Robot.
When looking at pricing on Amazon I noted that the African-American models are much more expensive, more than twice as much in the case of the afro hairdo doll. I've written to Mattel and will report back on their explanation. It is possible that this is an Amazon issue and not a Mattel one. Stay tuned.
