Add another movement that is gathering steam on Facebook. This time for something many people, particularly parents and caregivers, say is long overdue - the bald Barbie.
In only a couple of hours, “The Bald and Beautiful Barbie” Facebook page generated 10,000 likes, according to one of it’s administrators.
The well-coiffed doll, with the golden locks, is a symbol to many young girls of beauty and fitting in. That’s exactly why Becky Sypin, co-founder of the cause, says Mattel needs to create a Barbie without hair.
Sypin told ABCNews.com that a bald Barbie will help children with cancer and others who have lost their hair due to illness, such as alopecia and trichotillomania, cope with their conditions. For Sypin, the cause is personal. Her own 12 year-old daughter lost her hair while undergoing chemotherapy.
“We hope it gets the message out that being bald is beautiful and is no big deal. There’s no need to cover up,” she said.
Sypin’s daughter hasn’t grown up a being a huge Barbie fan, but if Mattel were to make a bald Barbie, she said her daughter would get one.
“She said if they make one, she would totally get it,” Sypin said. “The first thing she said was if they make that doll, she would buy a bunch and take them to a children’s hospital and give them to children with cancer.”
Jane Bingham, Sypin’s friend and co-founder of the Facebook page, lost her hair while undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“My daughter had some difficulty accepting me going from a long-haired blonde to a bald woman,” she wrote in a blog. A bald Barbie, she added, could be a great way for young girls to cope with hair loss that happens to them or to a loved one.
When I last checked, the “Beautiful and Bald Barbie” page was up to 50,000 likes. The comments were mostly positive and even included a request for a bald Ken to help young boys with cancer deal with hair loss.
The founders also started a Facebook page for young boys called the “Bald G.I. Joe Movement.” This time the hope is that Hasbro, the maker of the G.I. Joe doll, will create a G.I. Joe that is bald.
A statement on the Facebook page reads: “Boys who suffer from hair loss due to Alopecia, Trichotillomania or chemo are often stared at and misunderstood. Most are assumed to have cancer when many have Alopecia. We would like to see a strong figure for young boys to relate to during play that has no hair, like them.”
The women said so far, the response from Hasbro, G.I. Joe’s manufacturer, has been positive.
Supporters of the bald Barbie also took to Mattel’s Facebook page, asking the company to mass-produce the doll. Last year, Mattel made a one-of-a-kind bald Barbie for a 4-year-old cancer patient in New York, according to WCBS.
Sypin said she received a response from Mattel. The company told her it does not accept ideas from outside sources.
The women say that response isn’t going to deter them.
“We hope either Mattel does look at it and says okay, or that another company will pick up on the idea.”
A comment from a cancer patient on the Bald and Beautiful Barbie page summed up the feelings of a lot of its fans. “I can only imagine what young children feel when they lose their hair. Let’s make this happen and teach them young that hair doesn’t make someone beautiful, it’s what’s inside that truly matters!”
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/01/12/support-for-bald-barbie-swells-on-facebook
