Lira Molapo becomes the first African Woman to have a Barbie doll in her honour

South African songstress and businesswoman Lira Molapo became the first African to have a Barbie doll modelled in her likeness as part of Barbie’s 60th anniversary Shero campaign.

The campaign was launched to celebrate Barbie’s 60th anniversary and also to inspire more girls around the world. It has also featured global superstars such as tennis champion Naomi Osaka, artist Frida Kahlo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mathematician and physicist Katherine Johnson as well as British model and activist Adwoa Aboah.

I am proud to announce that I have been awarded a one-of-a-kind Lira Barbie doll, as part of Barbie’s 60th Anniversary Shero campaign celebrating role models who inspire young girls to be all they can be. I am the very first African to be bestowed with this honour and I’m simply thrilled to be honoured in this way.

Lira said on Instagram: “I am proud to announce that I have been awarded a one-of-a-kind Lira Barbie doll, as part of Barbie’s 60th Anniversary Shero campaign celebrating role models who inspire young girls to be all they can be. I am the very first African to be bestowed with this honour and I’m simply thrilled to be honoured in this way.”

Barbie company Mattel Inc said in a statement: “Barbie has been celebrating female role models and Inspiring girls since 1959. But she isn’t done yet. There are glass ceilings left to be shattered. And Barbie believes this generation of young women will be the ones to shatter them – that today’s girls will be The Last Generation of Firsts.”

Mattel Inc also released six dolls that embody under-represented careers for women such as an astronaut, pilot, athlete, journalist, politician and firefighter.

Barbie has evolved significantly since she was first launched now boasting a wider variety of skin tones, body shapes, hijab-wearing dolls and science kits to make the doll more educational.

Content courtesy of Alberton Record & Nairobi fashion hub