Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Humanities
Advisor 1
Sarah A. Bell
Advisor 2
Patricia J. Sotirin
Committee Member 1
Andrew P. Fiss
Committee Member 2
Jessalynn M. Keller
Abstract
Mattel’s YouTube Barbie Vlogs series (2015-2022) targets 6–11-year-old girls with short narratives and prosocial messages addressing their prevalent interests and everyday experiences. While the vlog is clearly an attempt by Mattel to appeal to a market sector that includes both little girls and their Millennial parents, this analysis examines Barbie Vlogger as a social media influencer in order to explore how little girls learn to become older girls through the performance of teenage girlhood as enacted in the Barbie Vlogs. What is Barbie doing in the vlogs to show little girls who a teen girl is and what she does and to prepare them for challenges and opportunities? The study frames the Barbie Vlogs and the Barbieverse within neoliberal feminist and popular feminist critiques and the work of Girlhood Studies scholars. The analysis proceeds in three parts. First, the vlogs are analyzed through a content analysis informed by Barton’s (2002) rich feature analysis and Reinharz and Kulick’s (2007) feminist content analysis, as well as Lazar’s (2007) feminist critical discourse analysis. This analysis finds evidence that Barbie reflects the neoliberal feminist narrative as a “can-do” girl who models self-reflection, positive familial and friendship relations and skills, and the value of a girl’s inner life and self-expression. Then, the content analysis is reframed through a critical discussion about girls’ mental health, children’s media consumption, and cultural illusions and anxieties over the young girl, and if Barbie can meaningfully address those through her vlogs, raising critical questions for further study. Third, two semi-structured focus groups were conducted with girls ages 5–9 who were members of a preestablished local girl-based group. The girls watched three Barbie Vlogs and responded to questions about their familiarity with and reaction to Barbie. The analysis finds that the style of direct address in the vlogs did not hold girls’ attention but girls who liked Barbie did respond positively to Barbie’s thematic emphasis on neoliberal postfeminist expression of self-identity and maintaining a can-do attitude, and asks how neoliberal feminism might offer nascent feminism to little girls. This study offers theoretical and practical implications focused on the empowerment discourse, girls’ media production and consumption practices, and cultural expectations of girlhood. It concludes with methodological recommendations for scholars who want to study little girlhood.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Janckila, Brilynn A., "BARBIE VLOGGER AS TEEN INFLUENCER FOR LITTLE GIRLS", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2025.