By Allen Voivod
Three days ago, Barbie Signature members got the opportunity to add the next Inspiring Women Doll to their collections – without knowing who the doll actually was. But this series of dolls, representing courageous women of their time, is so popular that collectors want to snap them up before they’re available to the general public.
We promised that this doll would be amazing, just like the real-life person who inspired her, and now we can finally reveal her: Bessie Coleman, the first Black and Native American female aviator and the first Black person to earn an international pilot’s license.
“She had to go all the way to France to get her pilot’s license, because there were no pilot training opportunities for Black women in the US at the time,” says doll designer Carlyle Nuera. “One of my favorite aspects designing for the Inspiring Women line is the research. So, while
I had heard of Bessie Coleman, I learned so much about her in the process.”
There are a lot of resources online to learn about Coleman, but because of the time period, one particular type of asset was in short supply – and it had a direct impact on Carlyle’s design process. “I went looking for old images of Bessie Coleman. There weren’t that many online and all of them were in black and white,” he says. “So I also looked to other depictions of her: book illustrations, tribute art, and even how kids dress up like her for school projects. That gave me an idea of how society characterizes her, and I could design the doll to match that.”
For her outfit, Carlyle created a traditional olive-green aviator suit inspired by what pilots typically wore in the 1920s, with tall lace-up boots. She also comes with a cap emblazoned with her initials. “My favorite detail on the doll is the golden eagle insignia on her hat, with ‘BC’ underneath,” Carlyle reveals. “One of Mattel’s sculptors, George Georgy, did an amazing job sculpting the soft folds and texture as if it was a real leather hat. There’s one portrait of Bessie where she’s smiling and wearing that hat, so that’s what I wanted to recreate for the doll.”
That winning smile also affected Carlyle’s selection of the facial sculpt for the doll. “I chose the Desiree/Adria sculpt because it has the same smile and similar features to Bessie,” he says. “We painted her face based on that portrait, capturing the shape of her eyes and eyebrows, and the natural, no makeup look she had in her portrait.”
Carlyle has had a lot of experience designing the Inspiring Women dolls, but when it came to the doll box, it was a first for packaging designer Priscila Bara. “It is indeed my first Inspiring Women packaging design! It was great to learn more about such a daring wonderful woman who was ahead of her time,” Priscila says. “I think it all came together nicely, and true to her profession and era.”
If you’ve seen multiple Inspiring Women doll boxes next to each other, you know that they’re all similar in some fashion. However, Priscila notes that “there are a few details that change from doll to doll That’s the chance you have to showcase something particular to that doll. In Bessie’s case, the wing-inspired pattern was created to go with the theme.”
Priscila also went hunting for photos from the era, but from a different angle, so to speak. “I think my favorite detail of the packaging design, because I wanted to stay true to the era, is that I made sure to find a photo from the early 1920s that pictured one of the plane models she used to fly.”
Now that you know more about what went into creating this high-flying doll, it’s time to tap over to the online shop and add her to your collection – or gift her to someone special! Get your Barbie Inspiring Women Bessie Coleman Doll today.
Bessie Coleman used with permission by CMG Worldwide, Inc. / www.CMGWorldwide.com
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