This Barbie is an award-winning home designer, author and entrepreneur.
Joanna Gaines revealed Mattel has launched a new Barbie doll created in her likeness, accompanied by its own Barbie Dreamhouse inspired by her Magnolia Network.
In an Instagram post announcing the collaboration, Gaines wrote that, “six-year-old Jo Jo would be losing her mind.”
Designed by both Gaines herself and Barbie, the doll has dark hair and sunglasses, while sporting a graphic tee, flare jeans and a flannel tied around her waist. Her shoe choice: roller skates.
“She’s got the same eyeliner, the blush, the turquoise earrings,” Gaines said in an Instagram video, examining her doll after an on-camera reveal.
Gaines explained in a blog post on her Magnolia website that the doll is inspired by fashion choices from the 1970s, “which happens to be the decade I was born into, and even today is a style and vibe I naturally love.”
“Fortunately, the team loved the idea of a retro aesthetic and the sentiment around going back in time a bit not only to the style of the 70s, but back to the spirit of who I was as a six-year-old when I first fell in love with the world of Barbie,” she wrote.
Gaines noted that she opted for roller skates on the doll because rollerskating was her favorite activity at 6, calling it “an inside out sort of experience, and inside I felt free—like I could be or do anything.”
Naturally, Gaines’ Barbie had to have her own custom-designed three-story Hearth & Hand with Magnolia Townhouse, which also holds a ‘70s flair, according to the Magnolia co-founder.
Gaines explained that their team tracked down “as many dollhouses we could that Barbie® had distributed in the late 70s” to inspire the doll’s home.
“We borrowed elements I remembered from my own, like the mid-century breezeblock on the exterior and the pink-and-white color scheme, and we added a few details that define me today, like my love of cozy spaces and baking at the kitchen island,” Gaines wrote in her blog post.
Gaines designed the townhouse, featuring five play areas, with kids in mind. She wrote that the product includes removable stickers in a “styling toolkit,” as well as plants, home decor and kitchen items.
“This way, kids can tap into their own well of creativity and personal feeling of home as they build out these spaces,” she added.
The Barbie now graces a shelf in Gaines office, she explained, where she suspects it will remain “for now, and likely for a long time.”
“In a room filled with a lot of beautiful grown-up things, I’ll let it be a reminder that I’m never too old to find my way back, to again see my place in the world through a lens of endless possibility,” she wrote.
Gaines’ Barbie and Hearth & Hand with Magnolia Townhouse is available to pre-order at Target and will be available in retail stores starting Dec. 7.
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