Barbie series features Atlanta aviator

Mattel is paying tribute to Cass County pilot extraordinaire Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Coleman with the doll-making company’s ‘Barbie Inspiring Women’ line. “Known for her daring adventures as a barnstorming stunt flyer, Bessie Coleman broke new ground in the field of aviation,” Mattel said in a release. “She also inspired generations of Black, Native American, and female pilots.”
According to the doll-making company, The Inspiring Women series is meant to pay tribute to courageous women like Coleman who “paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.” Born in Atlanta, Texas in January 1892, Coleman–who was raised in Waxahachie from age two–made history when she earned an international pilot’s license from France’s Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in the summer of 1921. This made her the first African-American (whether male or female) to earn an international pilot’s license.
In addition, Queen Bess, as she was often lovingly called, was the first African-American female and the first Native American to hold a pilot license. Coleman was born to a large family of Texas sharecroppers and worked the cotton fields as a young girl and studied at a small segregated school.

Early on, Coleman dreamed of becoming an aviator. However, neither African-Americans, Native Americans nor women were given flight training opportunities in the United States–a trifecta of problems for this young woman who had long dreamed of soaring through the skies. Fortunately, this did not deter the tenacious Coleman from pursuing her dreams of taking flight. Though very much marginalized as both a female and woman of color, Coleman had to be tenacious to achieve her goals; Nonetheless, she faced prejudice, misogyny and racism head-on and in doing so, Coleman courageously paved the way for–not only women and girls–but people- of-color, as well. Coleman learned French, saved money and received sponsorships in Chicago to go to France for flight school to obtain her international pilot license, making her a pioneer and inspiration for generations. Allen Voivod, of Mattel Creations staff, was excited to reveal Coleman on the Website as the latest doll in their signature line of Inspiring Women in his article, community.creations.
mattel.com/. “Barbie Signature members got the opportunity to add the next Inspiring Women Doll to their collections without knowing who the doll actually was,” Voivod wrote. “But this series of dolls, representing courageous women of their time, is so popular that collectors
want to snap them up before they’re available to the general public.”

“We promised that this doll would be amazing, just like the real-life person who inspired her, and now we can finally reveal her: Bessie Coleman, the first Black and Native American female aviator and the first Black person to earn an international pilot’s license,” they added. Doll designer Carlyle Nuera told Mattel researching Bessie Coleman was one of his favorite parts of getting a feel for the doll’s design. He said that though there was a wealth of information available about Coleman online, finding photos of Coleman to help with the integral design process was difficult, but not impossible. “I went looking for old images of Bessie Coleman. There weren’t that many online and all of them were in black and white,” Nuera said. “So I also looked to other depictions of her: book illustrations, tribute art, and even how kids dress up like her for school projects. That gave me an idea of how society characterizes her, and I could design the doll to match that.”

The Coleman Barbie release date was January 9 for The Inspiring Women series. According tthe series “pays tribute to courageous women who paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.” Nuera said he created a traditional olive aviator suit with long lace-up boots for her outfit that would have been typical of her time. Bessie comes with a cap with her initials, ‘BC’- -which Nuera admits is his favorite detail, along with the golden eagle insignia on the hat.

Nuera praised the work of Mattel sculptor George Georgy, telling Voivod that Georgy “did an amazing job sculpting the soft folds and texture as if it was a real leather hat. There’s one portrait of Bessie where she’s smiling and wearing that hat, so that’s what I wanted to recreate for the doll.” Nuera was happy with the face sculpt chosen for its winning smile and similar features to Bessie, he said, adding that her face was painted based on that portrait to capture her natural beauty in the shape of her eyes and eyebrows, along with a natural, no-makeup look.
To look into ordering one of the Barbie Inspiring Women Bessie Coleman dolls, visit creations.mattel. com. Dolls come with a certificate of authenticity. Coleman’s Barbie doll will be joining the likes of many other Barbie Inspiring
Women line dolls, such as Rosa Parks, Dr. Jane Goodall, Billie Jean King, Madam C.J. Walker, Ida B. Wells, Maya Angelou, Ella Fitzgerald, Florence Nightingale, Sally Ride, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller and Susan B. Anthony.