Being immortalized as a Barbie is quite the achievement for some women as the Mattel brand has taken strides to become more diverse, creating dolls that are ethnicity and size inclusive.
In 2017, a hijabi Barbie emerged in the shape of Olympic fencer, Muslim-American Ibtihaj Muhammad, and following that, a Saudi Barbie is coming to life, modeled after professional chef, Louloua El Ezzah – the first ever Saudi woman to have a Barbie doll of herself.
This year, Barbie celebrated her 60th birthday – and though its taken 60 years to create a Saudi inspired doll, we are glad the world is highlighting inspirational Saudi women.
The brand of dolls was first sold in Saudi Arabia in the 90s, but were banned a couple of times, albeit temporarily, between 1995 and 2005 – and now there is a doll that Saudi Arabian girls can relate to.
Jeddah based chef, Louloua, is a culinary entrepreneur who runs her very own cookery school, “Loulou’s Kitchen,” where she offers up classes in Thai, Italian and Japanese cuisines, just to name a few.
Speaking to Al Araby about a Barbie being modeled on her, the chef said, "I was really happy to have joined the Mattel Barbie list of inspiring women.”
El Ezzah first emerged in 2011 as she appeared on cooking reality show, “Top Chef Middle East,” and has since continued to strive for success through her cooking school. Speaking Arab News in 2018, the culinary queen said, "I really wanted more girls to know about this field as a career option. I wanted to convince more women to get into this, and that pushed me to continue what I was doing.”
Now attaining her very own Barbie doll proves that Mattel is continuing to grow its “Role Models” collection and we hope to see many more Arab women being immortalized as dolls in the same way!
