Since 1959, Barbie has aimed to help girls imagine future voyages. As of September, they can step into the (flat, thank you) astronaut boots of Ellen Ochoa, MS ’81, PhD ’85, whose doll is the latest launch in Mattel’s Inspiring Women series. In 1993, Ochoa became the first Latina in space, ultimately logging nearly 1,000 hours across four NASA missions. But when the former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and author of bilingual English-Spanish science board books discovered an invitation from Mattel in her inbox, she was surprised. “When you look at the other people that they have highlighted—of course Sally Ride, Katherine Johnson, but also Jane Goodall and Amelia Earhart, I mean, all kinds of amazing women—it was really an honor to be considered among that group,” she says. She has fond memories of playing Barbies with her best friend (who texted as soon as she heard the news). But Ochoa’s namesake Barbie is the first she’s owned: She grew up in a Jane West the Moveable Cowgirl home.
1. I’d love to have you recreate my hairstyle from the early ’90s,
said no woman ever. Exception: When Mattel assigns more than 100 designers, makeup artists, and couturiers to your look.
2. Head start
Early in their partnership, Mattel sent Ochoa a selection of disembodied Barbie heads. Her mission: to pick the ones that best matched her face shape and skin tone.
3. Power suit
Barbie’s launch and entry suit was designed to resemble the one Ochoa wore on her first mission (nine days on the space shuttle Discovery), including a patch with the names of the five crew members from STS-56.
4. No stilettos in space
This Barbie’s accessories include a helmet, gloves, and safety boots in basic black.
Barbie’s Stanford Galaxy
Barbie has had more than 200 careers, from pizza chef to NASCAR driver to Canadian Mountie. She became an astronaut (and set the bar for zero-gravity eye shadow) in 1965, two years after the first woman, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, went to space. Barbie’s giant steps as an astronaut include a 1980s version with puffy pink space suit sleeves and a 2013 Mars Explorer doll. She’s also actually been to space, as part of a 2022 education mission.
The Inspiring Women Series includes—of course—the first American woman in space, Sally Ride, ’73, MS ’75, PhD ’78, whose doll launched in 2019. In 2023, the Role Model Series (which is not sold commercially) honored anthropologist and epidemiologist Janet Wojcicki, ’91. There was a Stanford cheerleader doll—not to be confused with a Dollie—in 1996. And in conjunction with the 2023 film Barbie, Mattel released “Issa Rae [’07] as President Barbie Wearing Shimmery White Blouse & Short Set.”
Photos: Mattel Inc.
Summer Moore Batte, ’99, is the deputy and digital editor of Stanford. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.
