Like any woman over 60, Barbie has some life lessons to share

Though never her biggest fan, I’ve been fascinated by Barbie ever since her birth as a full-blown hottie on March 9, 1959, through decades of reincarnations.

Today’s new “it” girl is a British scientist of global renown — one Sarah Gilbert, who co-created the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Gilbert’s resume is chock-full of accolades, including having been knighted by the Queen, but being a Barbie shouldn’t get lost in the footnotes.

Barbie Gilbert is no Pamela Anderson look-alike or a celebrity fashion plate, as earlier Barbie iterations usually were. She’s a redhead with shoulder-length hair who wears black glasses and a navy pantsuit. All very sensible and thoroughly modern. A female scientist certainly isn’t as rare today as it was during Barbie’s early life, but men still dominate the top echelons in science, and Gilbert is keen to change that. Embracing her new place in Mattel history, she has said: “I hope it will be part of making it more normal for girls to think about careers in science.”