This Mattel SVP Is Revolutionizing The Way Barbie Empowers Children Through Doll Play, Neuroscience

Social media has accelerated FOMO (fear of missing out) and the art of perfection not just in adults but in adolescent girls. Ninety-eight percent of girls feel immense pressure from external sources to look a certain way, and 74% of girls say they are under pressure to please everyone. Barbie, a flagship brand of Mattel, Inc., has committed to providing girls the resources needed to help them continue to believe in themselves. 

At the forefront of this commitment, Kim Culmone, senior vice president and global head of design Barbie and fashion dolls at Mattel, Inc., utilizes her 20 plus years working with the brand to create campaigns that empower young girls. 

Barbie’s Dream Gap and You Can Be Anything series have shown girls that anything is possible. In October, the brand revealed findings from its collaboration with neuroscientists from Cardiff University on the benefits of doll play. A significant result showed that doll play allows children to develop empathy and social processing skills more than solo tablet play, even when playing by themselves. Doll play activates brain regions that allow children to develop social processing skills like empathy. The brain activation that develops empathy is evidenced even when children are playing with dolls by themselves.

“There’s attributes of the design process that are critical, which is making sure that that we have the expertise of lived experience in our design process,” Culmone explains. “If we’re doing dolls that are utilizing wheelchairs or utilizing a prosthetic limb … that consultancy is critical, especially when our intention is partially to help kids build empathy. Our studies that we co-sponsor show that when you play with dolls like Barbie, it lights up the parts of our brain that builds empathy. Continuing to show the diverse lived experiences through our brand ties right back into now what we know is neuroscientifically truthful.” 

Culmone began her career as an entrepreneur in textile design. She opened her studio out of college. After three years, she decided she wanted to work in corporate America. Mattel had a temporary position available in the fabric department. Instantaneously she knew she wanted to build a career at the toy company. As the assignment came to an end, a designer position became available on the Barbie design team.

Her 20-year tenure at the company includes serving as vice president of consumer products design. She set the creative vision for style guide development and licensed product design for Mattel’s global girls brands, including Barbie, Monster High and Polly Pocket. Additionally, Culmone led the company’s licensing design teams worldwide and developed products in 45 categories in partnership with licensees in over 150 countries. 

Before her current expanded role, Culmone was vice president of design for Barbie. She was responsible for all products and packaging for the brand. She helped launch the popular @BarbieStyle Instagram channel garnering over two million followers and unprecedented social media engagement within the toy industry. 

“There’s a big transition when you go from being what we refer to as an on-the-board designer, who’s working on a project, to a creative leader or a design leader who is managing a team of creatives,” Culmone shares about leadership. “I spend a lot of time listening to my team. Being honest is important, like saying to your team when you’re in transition, ‘I’m taking on a different role. Our relationship is shifting. It’s going to be important that you’re honest with me.’… I’m someone who believes that transparency as a leader is really important. I would much rather get things out on the table and have those conversations than operating through assumptions.”

In 2015 she led the design of the most ethnically diverse doll line in the brand’s history. That line included the introduction of three new doll body types—curvy, tall and petite. This bold product reinvention generated five billion media impressions and was named one of the Top 25 Inventions of 2016 by TIME magazine. Additionally, in 2016, the line generated the Barbie brand’s first-ever Toy Industry Association’s Doll of the Year Award, which it also won again in 2020.

“It was incredible,” she shares about Barbie earning her first Doll of the Year award. “It’s such a great honor. But even more important to me, though, while I definitely appreciate industry honors, is the response of the world to that project that won toy of the year. To be a part of a brand that can become more reflective of the world around us and allow more kids to see themselves reflected in a toy like Barbie, that’s so powerful. That’s something that has the power to change the world. It makes a difference that children see themselves represented in the brands and toys that they play with.”

As Culmone and her team continue to revolutionize and expand the Barbie brand, she focuses on the following essential steps: 

• Craft a detailed vision of where you want to go and how you want to feel. This will help you focus on your path; you’ll become aware of the opportunities available to you.
• Reframe obstacles into opportunities. Don’t let that deter you from your vision.
• Be open to connecting with new people. You don’t know the type of synergy you’ll have until you start a conversation. 

“Barbie is a tool for storytelling,” Culmone concludes. “It’s a tool for imagination. When you put that in the hands of a child, they are the ones that then tell those stories and direct their own narrative. Through that exploration, they discover who they are, and they learn to navigate the world. When I look at Barbie, and I think about what she taught me, it’s that realization that the power lies within all of us.”