In this op-ed, Madison Lawson explores disability representation in Barbie and what seeing Barbie in a wheelchair means to her.
My connection to Barbie feels spiritual. Even as a 26-year-old woman, I still felt the same butterflies as I rolled down the aisle at the movie premiere that I did all those years ago when I was a little girl unboxing a new doll; the same way I still feel it when I see the color pink.
But, like many people, I didn’t see myself in Barbie when I was young. As someone who uses a wheelchair, I wanted to see Barbie in my image. Barbie was the ideal picture of beauty at the time, and that didn’t include bodies of diversity in the '90s. I longed for a doll that looked like me, but in her absence, Barbie required a little more imagination.
So, when I found out Barbie was coming to the big screen, I was so eager to see if wheelchair Barbie would get the screen time she — and those of us who see ourselves in her — deserves.
A lot of people don’t know the story of the original wheelchair Barbie and the ways she fought to be here. In 1997 “Becky, friend of Barbie, school photographer” was released, coincidentally the year I was born. She was not a version of Barbie herself, but another character who was friends with Barbie. I guess they weren’t ready to see Barbie as a disabled woman. But, the Becky doll was short-lived. Kjersti Johnson, a girl with cerebral palsy, realized Becky’s wheelchair didn’t fit in the dream house elevator, so she wrote to Mattel to ask if the dream house elevator could be modified to accommodate Becky’s wheelchair. After several unsuccessful redesign attempts, they discontinued the doll. In the 2019 Barbie Fashionistas line, Barbie was finally actually in a wheelchair herself, offering a more diverse representation of beauty.
The Becky days are a typical representation of how how disabled people are often portrayed in media. People with disabilities are rarely featured as the ideal beauty standard, and are often used as objects of inspiration to make non-disabled people feel better about themselves. And while Becky broke barriers and is important to me, it was also why seeing Barbie herself in a wheelchair was so revolutionary.
I’ve always identified with wheelchair Barbie because, even in the “perfection” of Barbieland, she fought to exist in a space that tried to erase her. In fact, I chose the social media handle @wheelchairbarbie when I was 12, before Barbie was actually ever in a wheelchair. When I now see wheelchair Barbie in stores, my heart fills with joy for all the little disabled girls who will grow up seeing beautiful women in their image, something that would have meant the world to me as a kid.
Even though I was too little to have Becky before she got discontinued, my aunt Jenn found me one and she still lives on my shelf in perfect condition. Everyday, I am reminded by her that it's always worth it to show up in places where people don't look like you because one day, someone else will see you there and be able to imagine themselves there too. Showing up is a silent rebellion.
Showing up at the Barbie movie premiere, I hoped to see that same rebellion onscreen.
Although I had hoped to see Becky potentially make her screen debut, she was not in the film. I was, however, ecstatic to see a few moments of a wheelchair Barbie on screen. I was also really excited at the after party to see a display that featured wheelchair Barbie. I stared at her through the glass in my pink frilly dress, smiling from ear to ear, eager for all the little wheelchair Barbies across the world to see themselves — even if briefly — in this film.
I was brought to the premiere by 1IN4 Coalition, which calls for Hollywood to be inclusive of all people. People with disabilities make up the only minority that anybody can join at any point in their life. Like the organization’s name suggests, one in every four American adults has some kind of disability. Although we are the largest minority group, we are the least represented in media. As a little girl, seeing a Barbie in a wheelchair would have changed my world. I’m overjoyed to know that little girls in wheelchairs around the world can see a small piece of themselves in this movie and hopefully wherever they want to be in the world.
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