Courtesy of the Ledger-Enquirer
Candace McBride remembers wanting a Barbie doll as a girl.
“It’s kind of an iconic doll. Every girl wants a Barbie. I wanted a Barbie when I was a girl,” she said.
This Christmas, she’s hoping to give a few girls their own Barbies — ones that look a little more like them.
McBride is part of an African-American natural hair group that meets regularly at the Columbus public library that decided to give Barbie dolls to girls at Booker T. Washington apartments for Christmas. Though Barbie comes in 50 different nationalities, most of the dolls, even the African-Americans ones have straight hair.
“When you look for dolls, they all have straight hair,” she said, adding that she’s noticed that many of the dolls also have blue or green eyes. “It’s tricky even to find ones with brown eyes,” she said.
She found an online tutorial that uses pipe cleaners and boiling water to give Barbie natural-looking curls. After they collect the dolls — they want to gather about 40 — group members will give them a natural hair makeover before giving them to the girls.
“We wanted to show the girls that basically, it’s okay the way God made you,” said Jennifer Henderson, a member of the group. Henderson said her 2-year-old daughter, Imani, isn’t into Barbie yet, but she does like dolls.