UPPER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. — The cutest little girl of the moment played on the floor inside the carpeted office at the Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center in Trexlertown.
A large black-and-white patterned bow adorned the top of Belle’s beautiful long, black hair that tumbled over a denim jacket that accentuated black leggings and black Vans sneakers.
Kerri DiDario, EPDSC executive director, had a surprise for the child.
DiDario emerged from a side room and placed beside her a new Barbie doll encased in a clear hard plastic box.
- The Mattel toy company has marketed a new Barbie doll with Down syndrome
- The doll is designed to help celebrate inclusion through play
- Three-year-old Belle Galindo couldn't stop smiling as she played with the doll at Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center in Trexlertown
But this was not just any Barbie.
It was the newest offering released last month by Mattel in the toy company’s continued effort to celebrate inclusion through play: A doll that represents a person with Down syndrome.
‘Valued member of society’
According to a description by Mattel, the doll has a shorter frame, longer torso, roundish face, smaller ears and almond-shaped slanted eyes.
While the doll won’t be sold at major retailers until this summer or fall, limited quantities online have been offered and quickly scooped up by enthusiasts and collectors.
What a doll like this means to families and children who have Down syndrome is they’re being seen as a valued member of society.Kerri DiDario, executive director, Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center
But DiDario was lucky enough to get one.
Belle excitedly took the box and placed it in front of her. As DiDario chatted with the child’s mother, Annabel Galindo of Berks County, Belle stared down at the doll and began repeatedly running her fingertips across the clear plastic directly above the Barbie’s face.
As she did, she smiled.
Belle is 3. What vacant heart would dare dispute that which we all want to believe: That in that moment, a precious child, even one so young, saw in that doll not a plaything, but an beneficial, reassuring representation of herself.
“What a doll like this means to families and children who have Down syndrome is they’re being seen as a valued member of society,” said DiDario, who heads the organization.
Representing Down syndrome
EPDSC provides opportunities through programming, support systems, social opportunities for all individuals with Down syndrome to become independent and be fully included in society.
“And it’s not only important for children with Down syndrome to play with this Barbie, but for children without Down syndrome," DiDario said.
"It opens a window for education and inclusion.”
In the past, Mattel’s Barbie has been criticized for spreading unrealistic beauty standards for the children who play with the doll.
In recent years, the company has moved to deviate from that reputation by offering more diverse dolls. It started making Barbie and Ken dolls with wheelchairs, vitiligo (skin pigment disorder), hearing aids and prosthetic limbs.
The company unveiled its most diverse doll line this year in its Fashionistas lineup, which includes the doll with Down syndrome.
Mattel worked with the National Down Syndrome Society to accurately represent a person with Down syndrome. The doll wears a yellow and blue dress with butterflies, all symbols associated with Down syndrome awareness.
Even the doll’s pink necklace has special meaning. Its three upward chevrons are meant to represent the three copies of the 21st chromosome, which is the genetic material that causes the characteristics associated with Down syndrome.
Learning about Down syndrome
“I learned about the Down syndrome Barbie the day they announced it,” Galindo said. “I’m a member of a Down syndrome Facebook group site — Support for Mommies — where parents can get support and advice.
"They posted a link to Amazon to order the doll and I ordered it. Belle is a big Disney fan, but this will be her first Barbie.
“I think it's great that children with Down syndrome can have a doll that looks like them. It can only help them. We now have dolls for all kinds of children. We’ve come a long way.”
While Galindo presently makes use of EPDSC’s vital services to ensure a bright future for her daughter, she spoke of the past.
About 24 weeks into her pregnancy, she said, she was driving home from work in El Paso, Texas, when her cellphone rang.
Her doctor was calling to give her the results of a latest diagnostic test: Her unborn baby had Down syndrome, or trisomy 21, a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. The condition occurs in 1 in every 700 births in the United States.
Galindo said her shock was understandable. She didn’t know much of anything about Down syndrome. She tried to process the news — news that immediately got worse.
“The doctor asked me if I’d like to terminate the pregnancy,” Galindo said. “Terminate my baby. He told me this over the phone. I immediately got a new doctor.”
And four months later, she got her third child.
She's a fighter
Galindo said Belle is a fighter.
At 8 months old, she had surgery to repair a heart defect that involved valves and compromised blood flow. She doesn’t talk as much or run as fast as other children her age, but she’s coming along.
She attends early pre-kindergarten twice a week. She is sassy and loving, with a father and two older brothers who adore her.
She loves nursery rhymes and bedtime stories and likes to sing “Itsy, Bitsy Spider” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
With the help of a loving family and the assistance of the good folks at EPDSC, Belle’s future is filled with endless possibilities.
Judging by her smile at that special doll, a fulfilling life may be at her fingertips.
