Barbie, the doll that has long symbolized an impractical and unattainable standard of beauty for young girls, was invented by one of America's foremost businesswomen of her day.
This came as a surprise for the director of a new Hulu documentary, "Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie," that was to have its debut at the TriBeCa film festival this week.
The documentary, directed by Andrea Nevins, goes behind the scenes of Mattel as Barbie undergoes a major transformation to better reflect diverse characteristics and more reasonable notions of beauty.
"Multiculturalism as well as many different shapes, I think is part of the next step that we as women are allowed, in part because we have more power than we've ever had before and I think we can start to control the narrative and start to control female gaze as well as male gaze," said Nevins in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar.
She said that executives at Mattel, the toy company that's manufactured Barbie since 1959, decided now was the time to make a change because public awareness ー and backlash ー had gone mainstream.
"I think there was a lot of noise in culture and I think that they have had an antenna up since 1959 about what the noise in culture is and they heard loud and clear that women were no longer accepting that one form," she said.
For full article, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/in-a-barbie-world).
While Black History Month is a time to celebrate the achievements of Black Americans, it's also a time to reflect on how they can be better heard and supported.
Black Americans are still fighting for voting rights, facing more severe impacts from COVID-19, and experiencing gaps in workforce representation and pay. Alexandra Schrecengost, hybrid work expert and CEO of "Virtual With Us" and "Culture With Us,' joined Cheddar News to discuss.
Premio Lo Nuestro 2022 is kicking off awards season this month with its 34th show. The star-studded event will include performances from Pitbull, Luis Fonsi — and even Sting with his new Spanish-language single "Por Su Amor." Ignacio Meyer, the vice president of music and non-scripted entertainment, Univision, joined Cheddar News to talk about the music award show details. "We’ve actually still got plenty of surprises that were going to be announcing," Meyer said. "We're not done announcing the star power just yet." Singer Camilo leads with 10 nominations going into the event.
Black spending power reached a record $1.6 Trillion in a 2021 report from the University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth. Ayesha Selden, certified financial planner, breaks down why real estate is the key to closing the racial wealth gap and how Black Americans are using social media to improve financial literacy. "If we look at home ownership as being a primary driver of wealth, when you look at the equity that Americans have in their homes, that equity can be used to buy additional assets like other rental properties. That equity can be used to educate our children," Selden said, noting that lower rates of home ownership meant Black Americans tend to incur more debt on average for their student loans.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Dr. Kate Strasdin, fashion historian & senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University, discusses the lessons industry leaders draw from history to make fashion more sustainable today; Kendall Becker, fashion editor and trend forecaster, forecasts the hottest trends of 2022, and what will be left in 2021; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Going Circular.'
Dr. Kate Strasdin, fashion historian & senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the lessons industry leaders draw from history to make fashion more sustainable today.
A new survey from Etoro suggests that talking crypto might actually help Americans on the dating scene find love...or at least land another date. The survey found that 74% of respondents would be more interested in going on a second date with a person that pays the bill in Bitcoin. Callie Cox, Etoro's U.S. investment analyst, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
Energy Vault, the company developing sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions, is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the completion of its business combination with Novus Capital Corporation II. Energy Vault develops sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions designed to advance the transition to a carbon free, resilient power grid. Robert Piconi, co-founder and CEO of Energy Vault, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to disucss.
