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The new doll, launched on Tuesday, aims to
encourage girls as young as seven to learn real coding skills,
thanks to a partnership with the kids game-based computing
platform Tynker, toymaker Mattel said.
Robotics engineer Barbie, dressed in jeans, a graphic T-shirt,
denim jacket and wearing safety glasses, comes with six free
Barbie-inspired coding lessons designed to teach logic, problem
solving and the building blocks of coding.
The lessons show girls, for example, how to build robots, get
them to move at a dance party, or do jumping jacks.
According to U.S. Department of Commerce statistics, only 24
percent of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) jobs
were held by women in 2017.
Barbie has held more than 200 careers in her almost 60-year
life, including president, video game developer and astronaut.
Tynker co-funder Krishna Vedati said in a statement that the
company's mission to empower youth worldwide made Barbie an
ideal partner "to help us introduce programming to a large
number of kids in a fun engaging way."
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Richard Chang)
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