Barbie With Type 1 Diabetes: What Is It? How Many Kids In India Suffer From The Condition? Explained | Explainers News

Last Updated:July 11, 2025, 16:37 IST

Barbie With Type 1 Diabetes: The new Barbie wears continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a device that tracks blood sugar levels, on her arm

Barbie is spotlighting real-life T1D role models.

There’s a new Barbie in the toystore, but she’s much more than a doll.

The new Barbie wears continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a device that tracks blood sugar levels, on her arm — while holding a phone displaying an accompanying app. She also has an insulin pump attached to her waist. And the doll carries a blue purse that can be used to carry other essential supplies or snacks on the go. The Barbie’s outfit is blue, too — with polka dots on a matching top and skirt set.

Mattel has introduced the model, its first Barbie representing a person with Type 1 diabetes (T1D), with the colour and design as nods to symbols for diabetes awareness and to increase inclusivity.

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own organs and tissues. In this case, rough antibodies go after cells in the pancreas that make insulin, an essential hormone that helps the body turn food into energy. As a result, the body doesn’t make enough of its own insulin, so people have to take insulin by injection or through a pump to survive.

How many children suffer from Type 1 Diabetes?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 38.4 million Americans of all ages — amounting to about 11.6% of the U.S. population — were estimated to have diabetes as of 2021, the latest year with data available. About 2 million had Type 1 diabetes, including about 304,000 children and teens younger than 20.

In India, approximately 97,700 children under the age of 15 are estimated to have Type 1 diabetes, according to research published in the Indian J Endocrinol Metab.

Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which is more commonly linked with lifestyle and often seen in adults, T1D is not caused by diet or activity—it’s a condition kids are born with or develop early in life.

How was the Barbie with Type 1 diabetes designed?

In an announcement on Tuesday, Mattel said it had partnered with Breakthrough T1D — a Type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organisation formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or JDRF — to ensure that the design of the doll “truly captures the community”. That includes accessories that “accurately reflect the medical equipment” people with Type 1 diabetes may need, the California-based company noted.

Why having a Barbie with Type 1 Diabetes matters

“Visibility matters for everyone facing Type 1 diabetes,” Emily Mazreku, director of marketing strategy at Breakthrough T1D, said in an accompanying announcement. And as a mother who lives with Type 1 diabetes, she added, “it means everything to have Barbie helping the world see T1D and the incredible people who live with it.”

This new doll “enables more children to see themselves reflected in Barbie,” Mattel wrote Tuesday, and is part of the company’s wider Fashionistas line committed to inclusivity. The line features Barbies with various skin tones, hair colors and textures, disabilities, body types and more.

Aaron J Kowalski, CEO of Breakthrough T1D and someone who has managed Type 1 diabetes since his early teens, celebrated the collaboration. “It means the world to be part of bringing greater visibility to a condition that affects so many families,” he shared.

Krista Berger, Senior Vice-President of Barbie and Global Head of Dolls, said, “Barbie helps shape children’s early perceptions of the world, and through inclusive representation, we ensure more kids can see themselves in the stories they imagine and the dolls they love.”

Barbie’s new doll with Type 1 diabetes was also introduced at Breakthrough T1D’s 2025 Children’s Congress held in Washington, DC this week, where the organisation is advocating for continued federal research funding. This year, Breakthrough T1D has been particularly focused on the Special Diabetes Programme, which is currently set to expire in September. Barbie is spotlighting real-life T1D role models. Model Lila Moss and fitness trainer Robin Arzón (both of whom live with the condition) have been named ambassadors for the new doll.

Krista Berger, senior vice-president of Barbie and global head of dolls at Mattel, said, “Barbie helps shape children’s early perceptions of the world. By reflecting medical conditions like T1D, we ensure more kids can see themselves in the stories they imagine and the dolls they love.”

A look at Barbie’s inclusive world

• Back in 1997, they introduced their first doll with a disability: Share-a-Smile Becky, who used a wheelchair. But the launch wasn’t perfect. People quickly noticed that Becky’s wheelchair didn’t fit through the doors of Barbie’s Dream House, something that mirrors the kind of real-world accessibility challenges people with disabilities face every day.
• Today, the line has dolls with more than 175 different looks, including a variety of skin tones, eye and hair colours. It includes a Barbie with behind-the-ear hearing aids, a blind doll who uses a cane and another with a prosthetic leg.
• In 2022, the first deaf Barbie was released along with a Ken doll with vitiligo, an autoimmune disease that causes the skin to lose pigment. They even introduced a Black doll with natural hair texture and skin tone variations to better reflect the diversity of its audience.
• Mattel also introduced its first doll with Down syndrome in 2023.

Inputs from Agencies

Manjiri Joshi

At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies …Read More

At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies … Read More

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