The Power of Barbie

I posted early last year about the new Computer Engineering Barbie…and I finally got mine! She sits in my cubicle…as you can see by the picture.

Now I must say a part of me was a little disappointed in computer engineering Barbie.  I expected a little too much out of her.  I expected her not to be stereotypical, to be cool, and to make me proud.  Well, she was just very Barbie.  All her accessories are pink, except her bluetooth which is blue. (I wanted to call up Mattel and let them know that just because it is called a blue tooth, it does not have to be blue 🙂 )  She has a picture of Ken in her “cubicle”/ desk area represented in the box.  She is wearing sparkly leggings.  Unfortunately Barbie just doesn’t look like much like a computer engineer.  She looks like Barbie dressed up as the concept of a computer engineer- just trying too hard.

I was disappointed until just last week…

A co-worker brought his 6 year old daughter in to work.  She wanted to see my Barbie.  She held Barbie and immediately exclaimed “She’s so pretty!”  For at least 15 minutes, she held Barbie, open and closed her laptop, investigated the time on her watch, and read her iphone display.  Every other sentence was “She is so pretty” and “I want to be pretty just like her” and then finally “I want to be a computer engineer”.  It was at that moment, I was sold.  Mattel was onto something here.  We DID need a computer engineering Barbie.

So she is stereotypical Barbie…she got a 6 year old to want to be her….a computer engineer…and that’s just what we need!