Black Barbie | Official Trailer | Netflix

More than just a doll. Black Barbie celebrates the momentous impact three Black women at Mattel had on the evolution of the Barbie brand as we know it. Through these charismatic insiders’ stories, the documentary tells the story of how the first Black Barbie came to be in 1980, examining the importance of representation and how dolls can be crucial to the formation of identity and imagination. Black Barbie premieres June 19, only on Netflix.


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Black Barbie | Official Trailer | Netflix

Discover the untold story of the first Black Barbie and the pivotal role three trailblazing women at Mattel had in creating a doll who looked like them.

[DayaMcCarthy]

This is why growing up I loved bratz cause of the diversity. You had Black, Asian, White, Latino. And they were all equal the main character.

[charmedlilsis]

As a 34yo woman who grew up playing with Barbies of all races, I still walk down the Barbie aisle in Walmart just to see all the cool new iterations of Barbie. I pretend that Im looking for a gift for a niece but I have no niece. 😂

[neb.]

Seeing the little girls say that the Barbie with locs was beautiful and noticing her hair was like her brought me so much joy! I still remember those videos of black children saying that the black Barbie doll was ugly bc it wasn’t white. I love seeing that black kids are seeing themselves and they know black is beautiful!

[beckyuibel]

I remember when I brought my daughter to the store to buy Barbie sheets for her bed, she chose the ones with a Black Barbie on them. A woman behind me looked in my cart and told me that my kid picked the wrong ones. (We're white) I just told her we'd picked what my kid wants and we walked away. My poor girl was so confused. I'm still mad to this day. (It's been 20 years LOL)

[pamelawilson]

Remember Christie, Barbie's black friend. I had one of those in the 70's.

[mwentertainment]

This is the most "NETFLIX" thing I've ever seen.

[hitsugayatoshiro]

The black dolls protesting at 1:35 took me out 😭💀

[norijean]

So I learnt from this documentary that the release of Black Barbie didn't satisfy the Black community, because her hair was too short (natural style), and her dress wasn't showy enough (it was elegant, not a ball gown), and it must've been white creators being mean. But then they were told it was actually a Black lady designer who created the look, and the community went "Oh, okay then, never mind" 😅

[sillyme]

I'm 62 yrs old and started collecting black Barbies about 20 yrs ago right now I have about two hundred on display in their original boxes and this is after over the years given a hundred or more away because I just didn't have any where to keep them. I LOVE me some black Barbies ♥

[libbylou]

There actually was black dolls. There weren’t many but to say there wasn’t any is false.

[farinshore]

I don't get it. As a kid I identified with anybody doing something cool. Young, old, black, white, female, male, fat, skinny - it didn't matter. It was the "cool" I identified with.

[boxtears]

My gramma told me, "I don't care what they taught you at school. Barbie has always been Black."

[LaPantoja]

The sad part, now a days girls dont play with dolls anymore like back then😔😔

[DannieDoll]

I dunno, I'm Black and I always resonated with Barbie, I never even thought about her being White until everyone started making it to be a big deal. All this supposed push of representation is just furthering the divide between ethnicities. I related to Barbie because she was fun & beautiful, her color never mattered to me. That woman crying over the color of a plastic doll has much bigger issues.

[TrustNo]

We are so behind we were so focused on wanting a black version of something white we didn’t even focus on making our own brand dolls.

[maxwellmcdaniel]

I’m just a little disappointed that they act like Christie was nothing just because she didn’t go by the “Barbie” name. I literally saw an interview with either the writer or director of this documentary where she said “Christie was like being invited to the table but only offered crumbs” not to mention the Shindana toy company who had their own black Barbie-esque career girl doll “Wanda” who debuted in 1972, 8 years before black Barbie.

[MelanieWilliams-omvg]

I’m 61 and there were Black folks available when I was a kid, more white dolls, but Black dolls were in the shelf, , , , so when I see these 30 something’s in this documentary, I’m thinking where did their parents shop?

[roxybryant]

I had 2 of those Black Barbie. I got them one year with a fully furnished dream house. What a Christmas that was

[funmioh]

I owned one Barbie my whole life. It was when I was 7 in the 90s and I’ll always appreciate that my aunt was so intentional that my Barbie was black

[ericinla]

FYI - The first Black Barbie Doll came out in 1980. Which is almost 45 years ago.