Rosa Parks and Sally Ride Get Their Own Barbie Dolls

Rosa Parks and Sally Ride now have their own Barbie dolls.
 
Rosa Parks and Sally Ride are the latest additions to Barbie’s Inspiring Women series.
 
“These historical woman broke boundaries that made the world a better place for future generations of girls,” Mattel, the maker of Barbie, said in a statement.
 
The collection honors historic role models and launched in 2018 on International Women’s Day. The series is intended to inspire young girls worldwide and show them that they can be anything they want to be.
 
“Imagining she can be anything is just the beginning. Actually seeing that she can makes all the difference,” Mattel said.
 
Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist. In December 1955, she protested racial segregation by refusing to move to the back of a public bus. Parks’ protest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In June 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that racially segregated seats was unconstitutional.
 
Sally Ride was the first woman to fly in space. On June 18, 1983, she blasted off in the Challenger shuttle. In 1984, Ride again joined NASA’s space mission. After she retired from NASA in 1987, she became a physics professor at the University of California.
 
Both dolls became available to purchase in August 2019.