Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Black Barbie’ on Netflix, A Documentary about the Black Doll’s Origin Story

It was only a year ago that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s live action adaptation of Barbie was the talk of the town, but the worldwide phenomenon didn’t spend much time showing the inner workings of Mattel and Barbie’s other diverse iterations. But never fear: in time for Juneteenth, the documentary Black Barbie focuses on just that: the origins of the Black Barbie doll.

BLACK BARBIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Depicting everything from the creation of the original Barbie doll to the Black Barbie and all the way to her 40th anniversary in 2020, Netflix’s Black Barbie tells the story of the Black doll by the people who made her. Featuring interviews from three prominent Black Mattel employees, including Kitty Black Perkins who created the doll in 1980, the documentary tracks not just the creation and marketing (or lack thereof) of Black Barbie, but also what she has meant to generations of Black boys and girls. Director Lagueria Davis also inserts herself into the narrative by structuring the documentary to follow her own journey with the doll: at first skeptical to eventually seeing herself in Black Barbie.

What Will It Remind You Of?: Though it speaks to an entirely different group of marginalized people, the Black Barbie documentary treads familiar ground to Disclosure, which centered on the representation of trans people in media and its effects on a person’s feelings of self-worth.

Performance Worth Watching: The first Mattel employee we meet is Davis’s aunt Beulah Mitchell who was one of the first Black employees at the company. She recounts firsthand what it was like to be there when Black Barbie was created, and her joy and pride are palpable to this day. Protect her at all costs!

Memorable Dialogue: Black Barbie cites a study that showed how children relate positive and negative attributes to dolls based on their skin color, with Black dolls overwhelmingly being deemed negative. “All of the Barbies I had were white and I felt like I needed to look like them,” community coordinator and talking head Monica Bailey said of the aspirational quality that Barbie dolls held for many young kids growing up. “Having that to be a standard made me and other Black girls feel inadequate.”

Sex and Skin: This one is safe for—and should be watched with—the whole family.

Our Take: Come on Barbie, let’s go Barbie! The opening credits of Black Barbie give us Aqua’s famous “Barbie Girl” song before delving into a poignant documentary about the history of the Black Barbie doll, which hit the scene in 1980 after years of Black side characters in the product line. Creator Kitty Black Perkins is present to talk about the ideas and creation of the doll, whom she styled to look similar to Diana Ross and made a point to ensure actually looked like a Black woman.

But really, Black Barbie is about so much more than the origin story of the doll’s production. With talking heads like Shonda Rhimes and Misty Copeland, filmmaker Lagueria Davis shapes a narrative about the power of seeing yourself represented at a young age—whether it’s on TV or in the dolls you use at home.

The film’s biggest strength is in its access. Davis’s aunt was a fixture at Mattel as a receptionist, Black Barbie creator Kitty Black Perkins is present to tell the story of the doll’s creation, and her successor Stacey McBride-Irby discusses how she focused on revamping the line and creating even more Black dolls at Mattel. Together, these three women shaped the Black representation that continues to be a topic of discussion today.

Occasionally Davis’s narration can feel out of place, especially as she’s contemplating whether to like Barbies at all (which makes the whole documentary feel like a moot point). But when she’s able to click deeper into her family history tied to the doll and into her own psyche, it shines as an example of Black Barbie’s impact on many young Black kids in the world.

I was also pleased to see the documentary speak to body size (it goes without saying that Barbie’s waist is unattainable). Rhimes, Copeland, and professional fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad have all had dolls fashioned after themselves and each took care to ensure the dolls actually looked like them. A little more curve in the butt, more fullness in the breast, and thicker thighs all made the doll feel even more of today’s world rather than stuck in the standards of the past.

Black Barbie doesn’t ultimately land on a rosy colored glasses conclusion that the creation of the doll has suddenly fixed Black children’s self-worth or created equality within the world. By the documentary’s end, it’s still grappling with the idea that Black Barbie is in second place behind blonde-haired, blue-eyed Malibu Barbie—which only makes the documentary richer.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The documentary is a touching, personal look at the impact of the Black Barbie doll.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, ELLE.com, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.