Laverne Cox is starting her 50th year with quite the commemoration: Barbie is creating a doll in the star’s likeness as part of its Tribute Collection. The doll will be the first trans Barbie, a huge milestone for the toy brand that once had a reputation for not being inclusive. “What excites me most about her being out in the world,” Cox told People, “is that trans young people can see her and maybe get to purchase her and play with her, and know that there's a Barbie made by Mattel, for the first time, in the likeness of a trans person.”
She continued by speaking about the toy in the context of trans rights in the U.S. She said that trans children “have been used as a political football, when over 250 pieces of anti-trans legislation have been introduced in state legislatures all over the country in 2022 alone, and access to gender-affirming healthcare has been denied by policies signed into law in my home state of Alabama, in Arkansas and other states.” The Barbie, she said, “can also be a celebration of transness, and also a space for them to dream, understand and be reminded that trans is beautiful. That there's hope and possibility for them to be themselves.”
