Mattel’s Barbie has been a dynamic household artifact in the lives of many people for nearly 60 years. The iconic character is timeless. She has held up well throughout the decades. Plastic surgery for Barbie? No thank you, but a periodic, professional augmentation has assisted Barbie in remaining relevant. Regardless of her over-the-top, exaggerated attractiveness and attributes, Barbie has evolved, modeling more than fashion these days. She has an important mission, which is to instill in girls that each one has “limitless potential,” Designs, Products & Applications (DPA) reported on August 23.

Throughout her lifetime, Barbie has taken on approximately 200 careers. Granted, she had a leg-up when Mattel bolstered branding her and transitioned her to a strong, independent figure, not simply arm candy for Ken. Barbie has been upwardly mobile. She has advanced, once again. Mattel has molded her to inspire girls “to explore STEM,” DPA noted. (STEM stands for science, technology, education, and math.)

Barbie’s role aims to integrate play and imagination while teaching coding

A mind-boggling statistic is that a mere “24 percent of STEM jobs are held by women,” DPA also pointed out. An outgrowth of the STEM skills demographic moved Mattel to partner with Tynker to achieve the aim of reaching and teaching girls that they can by anything they choose while striving to advance STEM’s appeal among girls.

Barbie represents integrating play with imagination while presenting lessons about coding.

The companies are onto something, according to Forbes: “Robots and games that teach coding,” along with STEM skills, are in demand at contemporary education conferences. Krishna Vedati, Tynker’s co-founder and CEO, explained how the company has answered the spike in demand for STEM skills by revamping its educational experience.

Vedati described the experience as “super friendly” in terms of workflow and content, for example.

Robotics course casts girls in roles with the iconic doll to build STEM skills

Mattel and Tynker, headquartered in California, launched a robotics course centered on Barbie.

In sum, children have access to six free Barbie-centric lessons, offering the opportunity to sharpen logic, as well as problem-solving and “the building blocks of coding,” DPA reported. Children are “cast alongside Barbie” in various roles.

Girls can explore being an astronaut, engineer, and pastry chef. Not only is career a choice during the Barbie-inspired coding lessons, but so too is the customization of Barbie’s appearance. Virtual Barbie’s skin color can be customized.

Barbie is also utilized as a guide during the course lessons. Girls five years old and up are the target group.

Mattel believes its dolls are a viable ‘beacon to empower girls’

Margo Georgiadis is the CEO of Mattel. Georgiadis relayed to Fortune that the company, which is widely known for its toy manufacturing, believes that Barbie “is a beacon to empower girls.” Mattel plans to continue leveraging its Barbie brand to “inspire girls to pursue” their passions.

The scant number of women represented by the STEM job statistic (cited previously) has its roots in early childhood. According to Georgiadis, Mattel aspires to “reach 10 million children by 2020” with coding lessons through Tynker’s Barbie-inspired teaching modules.

Like Barbie, Georgiadis is on a mission, according to Fortune. She stated in February that her goal is to “techify” Mattel’s product lineup while utilizing Barbie.

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