Award-winning actress and LGBTQ+ activist Laverne Cox has been honored with a Barbie doll made in her image.
The doll is Mattel’s first-ever transgender doll.
Cox made history in 2013 when she became the first transgender woman of color to land a leading role in a scripted television series on Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.”
“I’m just so grateful that I’ve been able to be in this process. It’s a process of reclaiming my inner child, healing her, giving her what she didn’t have the first go-round,” Cox told People Magazine. “So to be turning 50 years old and be transgender and have a Barbie in my life, that feels just like a full-circle kind of healing moment.”
The doll was released Wednesday at a retail price of $40 and is available on Amazon, Walmart, Target and MattelCreations.com.
Cox told the publication that she used to beg her mother to buy her a Barbie doll as a child. Cox’s mother refused her request because at the time, she was still a male.
“I think in an environment where trans children have been used as a political football, when over 250 pieces of anti-trans legislation have been introduced in state legislatures all over the country in 2022 alone, and access to gender-affirming healthcare has been denied by policies signed into law in my home state of Alabama, in Arkansas and other states… That in this environment where trans kids are being attacked, that this can also be a celebration of transness, and also a space for them to dream, understand and be reminded that trans is beautiful,” she told the publication. “That there’s hope and possibility for them to be themselves.”
Cox says it wasn’t until she was in her 30s that she finally bought herself a Barbie.
“I played with my Barbie, and I told my mom what my therapist had said. And that first Christmas after that, my mom sent me a Barbie doll,” she reveals. “And she’s been sending me Barbies for Christmas and for my birthday.”
