“She’s Everything”: Mattel’s Re-Branded Barbie Vlogger as Can-Do Girl Influencer

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Abstract

In the Barbie Vlogs series on YouTube, Barbie is a teen influencer with a modern “can-do girl” attitude. She is competent, driven, and embodies confidence and empowerment—she codes, sings, DIYs, and expresses herself through other interests. In her vlogs, Barbie performs aesthetic labor commonly seen in feminine influencers, such as self-expression, authenticity, and vulnerability. Through these Vlogs, Mattel has re-envisioned Barbie to be a more empowering figure for young girls through her limitless capacity, and rebranded Barbie to perform authenticity while speaking directly to young girls and encouraging a specific performance of teen girlhood online that includes aesthetic labor through self-disclosure and self-expression. Based on a feminist content analysis of the Vlogs, this chapter argues that Barbie performs girls’ culture by filming content in her bedroom with the goal of emotionally connecting with friends and viewers and reveals that the ideal, adult-approved contemporary girl culture is competence rather than leisure. Barbie performs aesthetic labor in her leisure time by exuding both inner and outer beauty through her continued dedication to fashion and hobbies (in place of careers) and newfound goal of self-expression. Barbie’s self-disclosure and self-expression practices are reflective of the existing surveillance culture of girls, as well as the adult-mediated empowerment discourse surrounding girlhood. Barbie Vlogger is a corporate influencer directed at little girls, showcasing ideal teen girlhood and limitless capacity without the stereotypical boy-craziness, hysteria, or cattiness, visually influencing girls in how to be an ideal teen girl, too.

Publication Title

Barbie and Social Media Digital Discourses and Mattel S Celebrity Doll

ISBN

[9783031956102, 9783031956119]

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