The world’s first Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes (T1D) debuted with much excitement and praise from around the world.
The Barbie doll with T1D—a partnership between Mattel and Breakthrough T1D—is the most recent toy to raise awareness about type 1 diabetes and help educate children and their families about managing the condition. Barbie is in good company; she joins a long line of toys and games on the market that teach about life with T1D through play.
Because you can never have too many toys that represent T1D, here is a select group of others:
- Rufus, the Bear with Diabetes Powered by Breakthrough T1D (who comes with his own app!), came on to the scene in 1996. Today, he is the anchor of Breakthrough T1D’s care pack for children, the Bag of Hope.
- Glucomart.com started selling CGM and pump accessories for 12-inch dolls (like Barbie) and action figures in 2016. These are made to replicate Dexcom and Insulet products.
- In 2017, American Girl Doll—also owned by Barbie’s parent company Mattel—began offering a diabetes care kit for its dolls through its Truly Me line of accessories, which allow children to personalize their dolls.
- Deck My Diabetes, a virtual storefront on Amazon, offers accessories for dolls and plushies made to look like realistic T1D technologies.
- Give Rufus some T1D stuffed animal friends with plushies from Typeonetogether.com (the Diabuddies) or Typeonestyle.com. Animals range from alligators and axolotls to unicorns and wallabies!
- For adorable plushies with a generous dose of science, Iheartguts.com and Giantmicrobes.com have you covered with cuddly pancreas, insulin drop, and beta cell stuffies!
- If you’re into more crafty toys, you can find additional T1D dolls, plushies, and accessories on Etsy.
- Our list would be incomplete without video games! Roblox, Animal Crossing, The Sims, and more have incorporated T1D into their actions and content. Learn more about those and other games (including Level One: A Diabetes Game) on the Breakthrough T1D Play website.
Regardless of the toy or game, we hope the power of play will help increase T1D visibility and understanding around the world.
