I think it’s about time. My young daughter, when she was about 3 years old, was offered a hispanic-looking barbie to top her birthday cake, and her immediate reaction was “oh, she’s pretty, but where’s the normal one?” (read: normal = white with blonde hair). Makes sense, right? The “normal” barbie is white, with toe head blonde hair and unnatural proportions. My concern, though, was that my little impressionable 3 year old was going to assume white+blonde+hair+a ridiculously skinny and disproportionate body were the formula for “normal” in a girl/woman. I had a chat with her about “normal” and so far, she seems to be growing up with a healthy image of her skin color and body shape. But to bring out a Barbie of different ethnicity and help show lots of other impressionable little girls that their skin and hair color can be considered mainstream? I think it’s about time.