Barbie to honor COVID - 19 first responders with new dolls

Barbie is honoring COVID -19 first responders with a new line of medical role model dolls. The six-doll collection was created to highlight the valiant deeds frontline workers have taken throughout coronavirus pandemic. Mattel selected six women who proved to be real heroes in the medical field during this global health crisis and designed one-of-a kind Barbie dolls in their image. With over 200 career 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 inspire as we honor these real-life heroes and continue to leverage Barbie's platform to shine a light on the courageous women who lead the world through the pandemic. Representing the United States are intern medicine nurse Audrey Sue Cruz from Staten Island, New York, and registered medicine physician Amy O'Sullivan from Las Vegas, Nevada. In March last year, O'Sullivan made headlines for treating the first known COVID patient in Brooklyn at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on the NYC Avenue East side. A few days after her exposure to the first patient, O'Sullivan displayed coronavirus symptoms and had to be intubated but eventually returned to the emergency room where she worked to treat other patients. Her selfless dedication earned her spot on The Top 100 Influential People Of 2020 in September on TIME magazine. Cruz has worked as a full time hospitalist and professor during the pandemic in California. When Mattel isn't blogging about wellness, she has been fighting racial bias and discrimination along with other Asian American healthcare workers, Cruz reports. The rest of Barbie medical role model line are Kirby White, Chika Stacy Oriuwa, Sarah Gilbert, Jaqueline G es de Jesus and Sarah Gilbert. Oriuwa is a Canadian psychiatrist who specializes in treating children and adolescents at the University of Toronto. Throughout the Pandemic, she's advocated against systemic racism in the healthcare industry, which has affected people of color according to multiple studies. Gilbert, a British professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, led COVID - 19 vaccine development that played an instrumental role in the U.K. Prior to the ICF Pandemic, Gilbert had made strides in malaria vaccine research. G es de Jesus, a Brazilian biomedical researcher and scientists at the University of S o Paulo, worked on genome sequencing of the 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 co-founded Gowns for Doctors, a crowd-funded initiative to create reusable PPE gowns for frontline workers in Victoria. When she's not distributing gowns, White practices medicine at The GP Clinic Bendigo. Mattel also has partnered with Target on a donation campaign that will benefit the First Responders Children's Foundation. The Toy giant will donate $5 to the FRCF for every qualifying paramedic, nurse and doctor Barbie doll sold at a participating Target store. The campaign will run until August 28 and has max contribution of $50,000. This charitable initiative is a continuation of Mattel's ThankYouHeroes Program, a signature campaign launched by Mattel in May 2020 shortly after the coronavirus pandemic started.