Five-year-old Mikko’s eyes lit up with glee when she noticed something familiar about her Barbie: The doll held a fidget spinner and wore oversize headphones, just like hers.
The moment was “almost magical,” said Mikko’s mother, Precious Hill, who’s based in Las Vegas.
The doll, launched Monday, is the first Barbie with autism. She carries a pink fidget spinner that actually spins, wears pink noise-cancelling headphones to reduce sensory overload and holds a pink tablet that represents her augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, device.
Hill says Mikko, who is nonverbal, also uses an AAC device, which helps people who have speech or language problems to communicate.
“Autism is such an invisible disability at times, and to see that it’s being represented through Barbie – everybody knows who Barbie is – it felt really good,” Hill said. “It’s really important to me that Mikko walks through life having representation.
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