Dads Who Play Barbie 

I was recently approached by Mattel, the makers of Barbie, to take part in their #DadsWhoPlayBarbie campaign. This campaign celebrates the magic of the father-daughter relationship. In the campaign video six real dads are shown playing Barbie with their daughters, and how time spent in her imaginary world is an investment in her real world.

This campaign is supported by global research finding that strong male advocates empower girls, and that two thirds of UK Dads believe that joining in their daughter’s playtime helps build their self-confidence.

Our five year old twins already own lots of different Barbie dolls. Is it just me that feels as though Barbie has been around forever? In truth, they have and they’re just as popular now, if not more popular, than when they were first released.

I grew up in an age when it was frowned upon for boys to be seen playing with dolls. We were only allowed to play with stereotypical boys toys. That all changed for me when I had twin girls, because if I wanted to get involved in their games I knew I’d have to play Barbie with them. It was a bit strange to begin with as I’d never played with Barbie dolls before. When playing Barbie with my girls, I actually found it quite enlightening and freeing to be able to create these imaginary, role-play games with Barbie. The girls certainly have fantastic imaginations, and they loved having me play too!

As mentioned above, Mattel say that time spent in her imaginary world is an investment in her real world, and I couldn’t agree more! When a girl plays with barbie she imagines everything she can become. The world is now open to all girls and women to be whatever they want to be in life, without any restrictions, which is something I believe we can teach our girls from an early age. By doing this they’ll feel that they can do anything they set their minds too.

Mattel kindly sent me a Barbie You Can Be Anything Box full of Barbie goodies to celebrate #DadsWhoPlayBarbie. The box included a range of new 2017 Barbie’s including empowering new careers, the diverse new shape Fashionistas and athlete dolls. I love the new more diverse body shape as well as the athlete dolls. It’s all about the 21st century showing that women are achieving anything and everything in what was once a male dominated field.

They now have a Barbie footballer with movable joints. Of course she’s not limited to just being a footballer as R quickly said that she was also a skateboarder who did martial arts! I have to say that the footballer was R’s favourite! She’s obsessed with football and seeing a Barbie as a footballer, well, I think she was a little bit awe struck!

They also have a Barbie pop star showing that she can sing, dance, travel the world and write their own songs. The Fashionista dolls have said goodbye to the tiny waist, and they’re more like real life with fuller figures. I think this is great as size zero is not the norm and certainly not the example I would want my five year old twin girls. My other twin daughter, M, took an immediate liking the pop star doll, because she is forever walking around singing and dancing like a pop star!

The fashionistas range is very comprehensive and every Barbie is very different in shape and size which is more like the real world.

Spending time with my five year old twin girls, playing games with them with Barbie and being involved in their imaginary world is something that we all really enjoyed. It gave us the chance to dream up lots of imaginary scenarios and I felt that it brought us closer together.

Barbies will give your little ones an opportunity to make up and develop an unlimited amount of stories. You can see how I got on playing with their new range of Barbies with my girls in my video below, although both the girls had to teach me how to speak like Barbie!

I would love to know how many other dads play Barbie. Do you?