Barbie has been trying to break down gender barriers with their Barbie Dream Gap Project. They have made new efforts recently by revealing a real-life astronaut from the European Space Agency, Samantha Cristoforetti. Cristoforetti is the only female in the ESA that is currently active. Although the barbie will not be available for purchase to the public, the goal is to have young girls dream of their futures with no boundaries.

Barbie has an ongoing program called the Barbie Dream Gap Project. They release a barbie that is based off of a strong woman role model in almost every field possible. Despite the new Cristoforetti barbie not being for sale, many of the barbies that are for the project are sold. For each unit of the barbies sold a dollar is donated to an organization that helps young girls believe they can do whatever they want no matter their gender. 

For the new collaboration with Samantha Cristoforetti the European Astronaut Center located in Germany will have video tours done by Cristoforetti herself. The goal of Barbie and Cristoforetti is to have girls shoot for the stars for what they want to be. Releasing the doll will give more attention to women in the STEM fields. Hopefully getting young girls into the jobs of engineering, astronauts, and scientists. 

At a young age girls are establishing a mindset that they are limited to more careers, sports, learning, and more. Having Barbie be employed to 200 plus jobs in a wide range of fields is in hopes that young girls will believe they can do anything. Seeing a barbie as an astronaut will give the confidence a girl needs to know she can be one too. The shortcoming that young girls experience will hopefully be gone soon so they can reach for the moon. 

Article: https://adage.com/article/digital/latest-barbie-europes-only-female-astronaut/2182636