Steffie in Dolls of the World

And yet... another chapter in Steffie's life... different etnias and Dolls of the World!

In 1980 Mattel in a mix of praise for diversity and realizing the potential that had the african american public and those americans who had latin or oriental origins, launched a serie of Barbie dolls who were diverse. That was the time of Black Barbie, Oriental Barbie or Hispanic Barbie that led to Dolls of the World.

After the success of the "first" diverse dolls Mattel went for it and launched Dolls of the World, known too as DOW, line that was conceived pretending to be the song for diversity and integration. The problem was that, although they were very beautiful, fell in some clichés that offended some collectives who alleged that the designs showed a "white vision" of other cultures.

Controversy aside, both Dolls of the World and its predecessor individuals included some Steffie facemold dolls, one of the most beloved faces for Barbie collectors.

Remember that the Steffie facesculpt was made by Martha Armstrong-Hand under the purpose to make a face versatile enough to adapt to almost every situation so Steffie embodied the first Black Barbie, Hawaiian Barbie and Hispanic Barbie, pre Dolls of The World and, peruvian, parisian, indian, irish and german dolls in the DOW line.

As you can see the spectrum was huge for a so different feature demands and, although Barbie line incorporated during the 80s some facemolds like the Oriental facemold and the ethnic facemold who were used to represent a wide range of ethnias, Steffie never was taken out of the mix and always was ready to represent the diverse friends of Barbie later from the african american version of Heart Family's mom to Midge and Teresa, the latin friend of Barbie and even the japanese Oshogatsu Barbies in the 90s.

The last time we saw Steffie was not long ago at the Barbie Rewindline. Is Mattel realizing that collectors can't live without Steffie?!