Girl + Computer = ?

After reading about the LEED-Certified Architect Barbie Dream Home, I decided to do a little investigating on this “I Can Be” Barbie campaign. Talk about fantastic. It essentially is a line of dolls based off real career tracks - Computer Engineer Barbie was even selected from online voting. Imagine the implications - the majority of people who participated specifically wanted Barbie to be a programmer!

For me, this is great timing. I have been struggling between balancing my identity as both an artistic person who likes fashion and discussion and a person in the CS world. I don’t personally know anyone else like me, which can be rather isolating. Although laughable, its nice to know Barbie - a childhood icon - can do both.

I have really struggled with my identity during my college training. Sometimes it can be easier and more fun to be the techy tomboy - jeans, weird tee-shirts, little makeup, laughing along to the off-color jokes my peers make. Sometimes that is how I like to express myself.
However, I also know that I love fashion. I love art. I love ethics and philosophy. I love religions. I love philanthropy. And I love discussing equality, privilege, and what shapes our media. Many of the people I know in CS do not know this side of me.
Sometimes I feel weird wearing a dress to CS classes. I fit in better when I don’t.

Part of finding where “Maggie” fits in with “Programmer” and “Engineer” has been through getting to know other girls in my field. Part of it is in asserting my femininity with friends like Colton and Kolby. Part of it is explaining my techy-side with smart, sassy, lady-people like Glenna and Marissa. Part of it is through my own, private discoveries. Most of it is through communicating with other people about all the things that fit together to make ourselves.

And how did we communicate with other people about what makes us ourselves as children? By playing pretend or mimicking games - whether it was playing cops & robbers, or with doggie toys, or with pretend swords, or with Barbies.

There were some comments in the articles I found about if the best opportunity to introduce young girls to technology fields is with a Barbie doll. Will kids even care? Will it really impact kids to pursue such a field?

I don’t know if this was typical with young girls who played with Barbies, but I know that when I happened to get one with a laptop as an accessory (it was Mari, from the Generation Girl line), I used that thing in every single game.
 

I definitely had games with web-page designers, hackers, bloggers - usually it was with my Mary-Kate Olsen doll, because she was definitely my best one.
Lesson is, when given a techy accessory for Barbie, I used it constantly. Intrigued by technology at a young age, being able to bring that into pretend games with dolls fostered my interest.

Just because little girls play with Barbies doesn’t mean that they will always grow up to be image-obsessed. Chances are, a majority of young women my age today in the U.S. played with a Barbie at some point in some way. I’m not saying Barbie is the ideal toy for kids, nor am even I promoting the brand, but if there’s going to be a toy that breaks down barriers, why not Barbie? It seems apparent to me that everyone underestimates her because she’s blonde and extra-feminine.
Girls’ toys are so filled with princesses, weddings, clothes, and unicorns that its nice in any situation for a doll to have something more realistic like a laptop, a cell phone, and an adorable pair of glasses. This can only be a positive thing.
And you can bet that when I walk into the office my first day of work in my first post-college job, I will have one of these guys sitting in my cubicle to inspire me. 

Thoughts??

For more articles discussing Computer Engineering Barbie, please look at these:

• “Barbie’s Next Career? Computer Engineer” by Claire Cain Miller, in Bits, New York Times
• “Computer Engineer Barbie Has a Ph.D. in FUN (And Breaking Down Stereotypes)” by Brian Barrett, in Gizmodo
• “How Mattel Designed Computer Engineer Barbie to Excite Adult Geeks, Young Minds” by K.T. Bradford, in Laptop: the Pulse of Modern Tech