Barbie honors COVID - 19 first responders with new dolls

Barbie honors COVID - 19 first responders with a medical line of new models for dolls. The six-doll collection was created to highlight the valiant deeds frontline workers have taken throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Mattel selected six women who proved to be real-life heroes in the medical field during this global health crisis and designed one-of-a-kind Barbie dolls in their image. With over 200 careers, Barbie has done it all in an effort to inspire girls to believe that they can be anything, Mattel's SVP and Global Head of Barbie and Dolls, Lisa McKnight, exclusively told FOX Business. Now it's our turn to be inspired as we honor these real-life heroes and continue to leverage Barbie's platform to shine a light on the courageous women, who selflessly led the world through the pandemic. Representing the U.S. are internal medicine nurse Audrey Sue Cruz from Staten Island, New York, and registered medical provider Amy O'Sullivan from Las Vegas, Nevada. In March of last year, O'Sullivan made headlines for treating NYC's first known COVID - 19 patient in Brooklyn at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. A few days after her exposure to the first patient, O'Sullivan began intubation symptoms and was eventually intubated but returned to the emergency room where she worked with other patients to treat congenital rotator knuckles. This selfless dedication earned her a spot as TIME magazine's top story cover man on The 100 Most Influential People Of 2020 list in September. Rosa was as a full-time hospitalist and faculty member during the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California throughout the pandemic. When Cruz isn't blogging about wellness, she’s been fighting racial bias and discrimination alongside other Asian Americans, Mattel reports. The rest of the Barbie medical role model line make up Chika Stacy Oriuwa, Kirby White, Sarah Gilbert, Jaqueline G es de Jesus and Kirby White. Oriuwa is a Canadian psychiatrist who treats kids and adolescents at the University of Toronto. In the pandemic, she's advocated against systemic racism in the healthcare industry, which has impacted people of color, according to multiple studies. Gilbert, a British professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, led the development of COVID-19 vaccine that played an instrumental role in the U.K. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Gilbert had made strides in malaria vaccine research. G es de Jesus, a Brazilian biomedical researcher and scientist at the University of S o Paulo, worked on genome sequencing of COVID - 19 Alpha variant that has been infecting people in Brazil. In March 2020, her team was recognized by the Legislative Assembly of Bahia for successfully sequencing the genome in 48 hours. White is an Australian specialist general practitioner who founded Gowns for Doctors, a crowd-funded initiative that produced PPE gowns for frontline workers in Victoria. When she isn't distributing gowns, White practices medicine at Bendigo Health Centre. Mattel has also partnered with Target on a fundraising campaign which will benefit the First Responders Children's Foundation. The Toy giant will donate $5 to the FRCF for every available Barbie doll sold at participating Target stores by eligible paramedic, nurse and doctor. The campaign will run until Aug. 28 and has a maximum contribution of $50,000 This charitable initiative is a continuation of Mattel's ThankYouHeroes program, a signature campaign the company started in May 2020 shortly after the coronavirus pandemic started.