Before Beyoncé was on the cover of Vogue and Michelle was in the White House, Black girls had to imagine themselves as Barbies that didn’t look like them.
Thanks to Sarah GoPaul’s Digital Journal piece for surfacing some of this backstory. I’d also like to thank the filmmaker’s aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, for telling it like it is, even after 45 years at Mattel.
Trailer for “Black Barbie: A Documentary”
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- Before 1980, any “Black” dolls sold under the Barbie brand were usually just white Barbie molds painted brown. No new features. No new stories.
- The 1954 “Doll Test” (used in Brown v. Board of Education) showed Black children internalized negative self-image from playing only with white dolls—something Mattel ignored for decades.
Watch “Black Barbie: A Documentary”
You can watch “Black Barbie: A Documentary” on Netflix.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDB Rating: 6.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 63/100 (Users); 96/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Lagueria Davis directs this 100-minute doc with intimate access to her aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, a Mattel employee for 45 years. She mixes personal storytelling with cultural history and interviews with Mattel insiders and Black women from multiple generations.
Release Date: Premiered at SXSW in 2023, now streaming on Netflix as of 2024.
My Review of “Black Barbie: A Documentary”
The Setup
For 20 years after Barbie launched in 1959, every doll was white. It took three Black women at Mattel—Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, and Stacey McBride-Irby—to push for change. In 1980, the first Black Barbie finally hit the shelves, and this documentary tells the full story behind that breakthrough.
This is about a toy, but it is also about erasure, representation, and how one doll impacted the self-image of Black girls across generations.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Kitty Black Perkins modeled the first Black Barbie after Diana Ross—down to the textured hair and glamorous outfits.
- Beulah Mae Mitchell didn’t just work at Mattel—she confronted the company’s executives face-to-face asking, “Why aren’t there Black Barbies?”
- The doc dives deep into the politics of toy design—how Barbie’s features, hair, and even packaging are all coded forms of cultural messaging.
- Several Black women recall how it felt to finally get a doll that looked like them—and how the absence of that option damaged their self-esteem as kids.
- The documentary shows how the battle for representation inside toy companies mirrors the larger civil rights struggles of the time.
Cameos
- Kitty Black Perkins, legendary Barbie designer
- Stacey McBride-Irby, creator of the So In Style (S.I.S.) Black dolls at Mattel
- Beulah Mae Mitchell, longtime Mattel insider and truth-teller
- Activists, scholars, and artists including Brittney Cooper and Imani Perry lend cultural commentary
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- The original Black Barbie was not just a recolored doll—it had completely redesigned facial features to reflect Black beauty standards, something Mattel had never done before.
- Beulah Mae Mitchell started at Mattel as a receptionist in the 1950s and rose through the ranks—without a college degree—becoming a trusted voice in product development.
- Kitty Black Perkins was one of the first Black fashion designers hired at Mattel and helped create hundreds of Barbie outfits over her career.
- Black Barbie was a cultural win—it sold well and proved there was a market all along. Yet it still took years before more Black dolls followed.
Wrap Up
“Black Barbie” shows that representation isn’t a buzzword—it’s a battleground. One doll, one boardroom confrontation, and one auntie’s story changed everything.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc