The doll captures The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey’s likeness, even down to the mole above her eye. The posable Barbie retails for $14.99 and has long red dreadlocks like Bailey’s hair in ...

Now, Barbie is celebrating the 45th anniversary of their first-ever Black Barbie doll with a collectible doll of creator Black Perkins, who worked at the brand as a pioneering designer until 2004.

The first Black Barbie, which debuted in 1980, featured a doll fully immersed in her identity. Designed by Kitty Black Perkins, the doll had an Afro to complement her red dress and gold jewelry.

Ariel and Barbie have quite a bit in common: They're both frozen in time, and they both yearn to live as humans do. The fantastic seascapes and perfect dollhouses of "The Little Mermaid" and ...

The doll wasn’t greenlit until Perkins was hired as a Barbie designer in 1976. Black Barbie hit the market in 1980, and Perkins explains in the film that the doll was designed to be reminiscent ...

The first black Barbie came in a box in a box that touted “She’s black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!” Mattel. Although Mattel had introduced the Christie doll as Barbie’s friend in ...

In Netflix documentary "Black Barbie," out Wednesday, June 19, executive producer Shonda Rhimes, ... Black Barbie became the first doll of color to be given the name “Barbie” in 1980.

Mattel did introduce Black fashion dolls in the late 1960s, but they were not named Barbie, and they were marketed as Barbie's friends. So the arrival of a true Black Barbie was an important moment.

The first Black Barbie debuted in 1979, two decades after Mattel introduced the original Barbie. Before then, several Black American dolls were added to the Barbie franchise, like 'colored Francie ...

In the Netflix documentary 'Black Barbie,' designers Kitty Black Perkins and Stacey McBride-Irby talk the evolution of the dolls and further tell PEOPLE about the differences they've made.

The trailer for Shondaland’s Black Barbie details the creation of the influential dolls, featuring interviews with the women who brought them to Mattel and others. “If you go through life, and ...