Mattel Issues Barbie Modeled After Out Soccer Star

Mattel yesterday announced the release of a short-haired Barbie modeled after out lesbian soccer star Abby Wambach. Via Gay Star News:

If you thought Barbie dolls were all one shape and image, the new Abby Wambach doll goes some way to confronting stereotypes and showing young girls (and boys), that female role models don’t all come in one mold.

Wambach, in case you’re not clued up on your soccer, is a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winning soccer player and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion (2015). She is a six times winner of the US Soccer Athlete of the Year award, and hold the record as the highest-scoring US soccer player for the national team (male or female). She announced her retirement from competition last October.

The doll features Wambach’s distinctive cropped sidecut and a Nike kit – the same she wore at the 2015 Women’s Soccer World Cup. It also has moveable, articulate limbs – all the better for adopting the poses of a star striker.

This is Mattel’s first doll modeled after an openly gay person. Late last year Mattel got the usual flack from the haters when it featured a young boy in one of their ads. The elaborated coiffed boy exclaimed, “Moschino Barbie is so fierce!”