Emmy Award-winning actress and LGBTQ activist Laverne Cox is being honored with her own Barbie doll for her 50th birthday.
According to reports, Cox is being honored with a Tribute Collection Barbie released on May 25–four days before her 50th birthday on May 29. The doll was created in honor of her commitment to advocating for LGBTQ rights and visibility. It’s also the first one ever made in the likeness of a transgender woman.
Cox’s Barbie is dressed up in a pretty red gown, a silver bodysuit, high-heeled boots, and silver earrings. The Alabama native said it was “a dream” to work with the iconic doll brand and create her own in a recent statement.
“It’s been a dream for years to work with Barbie to create my own doll,” she said. “I can’t wait for fans to find my doll on shelves and have the opportunity to add a Barbie doll modeled after a transgender person to their collection.”
She added that she wants people to look to her doll as inspiration to “dream big.”
“I hope that people can look at this Barbie and dream big like I have in my career. The space of dreaming and manifesting is such a powerful source and leads you to achieve more than what you originally thought was possible.”
The outspoken LGBTQ activist even revealed that her therapist encouraged her to play with Barbies to heal from her traumatic childhood.
“I was telling my therapist how I was really shamed by my mother when I was a kid when I wanted to play with a Barbie doll, but I was denied. And I had a lot of shame and trauma about that,” she said. “And my therapist said to me, ‘It is never too late to have a happy childhood.’ She said, ‘Go out and buy yourself a Barbie and play with her. There’s a little kid that lives inside of you. Give her space to play.’ And I did.”
Naturally, the uber-popular doll became a source of healing for her as an adult.
“Barbie has been a really healing experience for me as an adult, and I hope Barbie fans of all ages can find healing and inspiration in this doll,” Cox said.
Cox rose to fame for her role as Sophia Burset on the hit Netflix show Orange Is The New Black in 2013. She then became the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She also became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Time in 2014 and the first transgender person to grace the cover of a Cosmopolitan magazine–the South African edition–in 2018.
GLAAD honored the actress with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her work as a transgender community advocate.
