On January 11th, Mattel released their first Autistic Barbie doll, designed with guidance from the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. The autistic Barbie doll features elbow and wrist articulation to enable self-stimulatory behaviours (stimming) and has a slightly offset eye gaze. Each doll comes with a fidget spinner, noise-cancelling headphones and a tablet showing an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) application.

To celebrate the launch, Barbie donated more than 1,000 autistic Barbie dolls to paediatric hospitals that provide specialised services for autistic children and young people.

Creating more representative dolls

Mattel had a rocky start to creating disabled Barbie dolls with the 1997 wheelchair-user Barbie being unable to access the Barbie Dream House. More recent efforts have been successful and appropriate, and working with community members has helped. In 2023, Mattel collaborated with the National Down Syndrome Society to create several Barbie dolls with Down Syndrome. Similarly, in 2024, Mattel partnered with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and the American Foundation for the Blind to create their first blind Barbie. Both the blind Barbie and the Barbie with Down Syndrome have had a positive reaction from Barbie fans.

The Autistic Barbie doll

Since its launch, there has been a lot of discourse online about what Autistic Barbie means to autistic people and the wider autism community. Some Autistic people who enjoy playing with or collecting Barbies have loved the representation.

Communication Representation

Maria Davis Pierre, CEO and founder of Autism in Black, shared her excitement about the Autistic Barbie, sharing that she felt there was a lot of intentionality put into her creation, especially around her accessories and her ability to stim.

Autistic Barbie has an AAC tablet, used by many non-speaking or minimally speaking Autistic people. Some people have seen this as a tablet, which can be used to help with regulation – whichever way you see it, these devices mean a lot to many Autistic people. Tiffany Hammond and Kaishawna_Music have spoken about this AAC representation much better than I ever could.

Racial and ethnic representation

Autistic Barbie is a woman of colour, representing two groups of people who are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and held to higher standards for behaviour and educational achievement than others. Brooke from Diary of a Mom has decided to get an Autistic Barbie doll, who remarkably resembles her as an Autistic woman of colour. Her mother shared that: “She took in the long, dark hair, hanging loose, like her own. I pointed out the beautiful, golden brown eyes just like hers, their gaze set ever so slightly to the side”, and shared she will buy one and call her Brooke. More on Brooke’s reaction here. Sofia Farzana of Scottish Ethnic Minority Autistics, similarly, shared how “Mattel did well representing me, a late diagnosed South Asian female.”

However, there have been conversations on the racial and ethnic ambiguity of Autistic Barbie. Many of these conversations (rhetoric!) are based on the consistent centring of whiteness within Autistic understandings and representations. However, there have been real concerns raised by Black Autistic advocates about power dynamics, especially when the advertising campaign and the doll appear juxtaposed. Lovette Jallow has shared a powerful post on the issues of representation without shared power.

Fitting the ‘Autistic stereotype’?

Some Autistic people have also raised concerns about Autistic Barbie adding to stereotypes of Autistic people. They suggest that the fidget spinner, tablet and headphones are too cliché and that autism “doesn’t have a look”. On the other hand, many parents and carers have spoken about how this doll does not represent their family members with ‘high support needs’. Some have even argued against the collaboration with ASAN, as they have argued against tracking devices in Autistic people who elope.

Despite all of this, we must remember that Barbie is a doll who comes to life with the imagination of those who play with her. She is not a real person, and if she were, we would still not expect her to represent every Autistic person and experience of autism. Most of us wouldn’t put that pressure on a person, let alone an inanimate object. As I have seen shared online, “If you have met one Barbie with autism, you have met one Barbie with autism.”

Is it beneficial to have an Autistic Barbie?

For the most part, yes. She can look like, have accessories like and move like some Autistic people. She can be part of someone’s collection or play. She can represent and ‘speak to’ those who are more visibly Autistic. This doesn’t go without complications of consumerism, and the ongoing issue that representation does not equate to liberation (Monique Botha speaks to this here)

One doll could never represent all of us. Mattel and ASAN were aware of this, but they also recognised that Autistic experiences and embodiments can be created during play. It is not necessarily what she looks like or the accessories that she comes with; it is how she is integrated into someone’s collection and play (who knows, maybe she will be friends with the blind Barbie, the Barbie who uses a wheelchair and the Barbie with Down Syndrome. I have visions of them starting a radicalist book club). So, yes, Autistic Barbie isn’t perfect, but starting 2026 with an intentional Autistic doll is important and exciting.