Barbie’s Girls and Hannah’s Children

When I was a young girl in the early 2000s, “career Barbie” ruled the world. The doll, released in the late 1950s, had developed beyond domestic concerns and now followed the prevailing cultural message that girls could be anything. Barbie defined the “ideal” woman for me and millions of girls across the world—and the global success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film last year reveals the lasting power of that message.