A study conducted by toy manufacturer Mattel revealed that 95% of American girls ages 3 to 11 owned multiple Barbie dolls.
Amirah Kambe was one of them.
A 2025 Cal State Fullerton graduate with a degree in public health, Kambe, 24, drew on her childhood experiences with Barbie combined with her current academic curiosity to conduct a research project exploring how Black Barbie influences young Black girls’ perceptions of their hair.
“I had a lot of Barbie dolls growing up,” said Kambe, who minored in African American studies. “I don’t know that I had that many Black Barbies. We would go to the store and I’d … look at the shelf and if there was one (a Black Barbie), I would pick it.”
Kambe’s research was part of a CSUF fellowship program — Bolstering Black Undergraduate Student Creative Activities and Research — pairing Black students with Black faculty mentors to guide them through the research process.
She was inspired by her mentor, Amirah Saafir, a faculty member at CSUF and a consultant for the Netflix documentary ”Black Barbie.”
Saafir, who is featured in a segment of the documentary titled “Future of Black Barbie: Center of Her Own Story,” designed a study in which researchers presented 18 children ages 6 to 12 with Black and white Barbies. The largest demographic was Black girls at 83%. None of the participants were white.
The children were asked questions such as “Which doll do you like the most and why?” and “Which one are you most likely to play with?”
Saafir concluded that children tended to gravitate toward dolls that had similar features as their own or people in their family, revealing how younger generations think about representation, inclusion and diversity along with the significance of toys in helping children develop and understand their identity.
The study also revealed, however, that the children identifed the Malibu Barbie doll as being the “real” Barbie when asked which was the real Barbie.
For her research, Kambe had access to footage from the focus groups presented in “Black Barbie,” focusing on how the Black Barbie dolls’ portrayal of hair influenced participants’ perceptions of their own hair.
Using a research tool called qualitative data analysis, Kambe identified themes in the children’s responses.
“I think what jumped out at me really was that the kids were contradicting themselves a bit,” Kambe said. “They would express positive beliefs about their own hair and how they see themselves, and that’s really good. I feel like that’s the way the parents have socialized them because I think some of them haven’t been in school that long. So, it surprised me that they would have such positive beliefs about themselves or the Black Barbie dolls … all the Barbie dolls, really.”
However, some children said their favorite Barbie dolls were the white Barbies with straight hair, Kambe said.
Also, when the youngsters were asked whether there was a Barbie that they considered to be the “real” Barbie, some identified the white, “perfect” doll because of her blonde, straight hair, Kambe said.
“So, I thought it was interesting that they feel positively about all the dolls but then they’re also saying, well, no, this one is perfect and the epitome of what Barbie is supposed to look like,” Kambe said.
From her research, Kambe concluded that a diverse collection of dolls lining store shelves isn’t enough.
“It also requires intentional marketing and media portrayals,” she said.
Kambe’s hope is that Mattel promotes Black Barbie with the same visibility as white Barbie to ensure that Black children see themselves reflected in mainstream storytelling.
Her research reinforced the idea that representation impacts children’s confidence, mental health and overall well-being.
Kambe was among 13 Black undergraduate students who presented their research at the Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research at Cal State San Bernardino in November.
Kambe plans to continue exploring the intersections of race, health and identity, potentially pursuing a master’s degree in public health or medical sociology.
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