--- title: Christmas 2015: Ava DuVernay Barbie Doll Goes on Sale description: The filmmaker announces release of her very own Barbie doll. canonical: https://time.com/4138236/ava-duvernay-barbie/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-07T14:37:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:18.005Z og:title: Filmmaker Ava DuVernay's Look-Alike Barbie Doll Goes on Sale og:description: "A beautiful, Black, filmmakin’ Barbie with locs!" og:url: https://time.com/4138236/ava-duvernay-barbie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0dfb099fdc8eaff/698873fa2dce01810c9e6cd0/ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2496 og:image:height: 1404 og:image:alt: Ava DuVernay attends the "Belief" premiere in New York City on Oct. 14, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Filmmaker Ava DuVernay's Look-Alike Barbie Doll Goes on Sale twitter:description: "A beautiful, Black, filmmakin’ Barbie with locs!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0dfb099fdc8eaff/698873fa2dce01810c9e6cd0/ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Selma_ Director Ava DuVernay Barbie Doll Now on Sale > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8396e7ed-d3a8-48e6-9fae-9f9aebe23234&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo on [Watch (HLS stream): Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo on](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/H4cNz19h.m3u8) (2:52)  _Published 2015-01-07. Director Ava DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo discuss their new Golden Globe-nominated movie_ by [Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly Dec 7, 2015 2:37 PM UTC by [Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly Dec 7, 2015 2:37 PM UTC The Barbie doll made in _Selma_ director Ava DuVernay’s likeness earlier this year is now available for purchase thanks to demand from fans. “Tomorrow this [#AvaBarbie](https://twitter.com/hashtag/AvaBarbie?src=hash) goes on sale for Christmas because enough folks asked [@Mattel](https://twitter.com/Mattel) to do so. Wild + wonderful,” DuVernay tweeted on Sunday. She added that proceeds from sales of the doll will benefit Color of Change and Witness.org. > [](https://twitter.com/AVAETC/status/673625255999500289) > [](https://twitter.com/AVAETC/status/673629095100440576) The official Barbie Twitter account also [confirmed the doll will be available to purchase](https://twitter.com/Barbie/status/673729314668457985) starting Monday, but did not give details on where to buy or how much the doll would cost. DuVernay’s look-alike doll [was created earlier this year](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/24/check-out-ava-duvernays-look-alike-barbie-doll-0) as part of Mattel’s “Shero” campaign, which honored six real-life women and their accomplishments in entertainment (the other women who had dolls created were actresses Emmy Rossum and Kristin Chenoweth, 5-year-old fashion designer Sydney Kaiser, singer Trisha Yearwood, and Eva Chen, then the editor-in-chief of _Lucky_ magazine). Each honoree was given the custom-made doll in their likeness to auction for a charity of their choice. “I love that the doll is supposed to have locs like my own,” DuVernay told EW via email in April. “I was a big Barbie girl when I was young. My sisters, Jina and Tera, and I would play for hours making up stories and scenarios. We couldn’t afford all the Barbie furniture and cars, so our Barbies drove around in our skates! And we’d cut socks and put a rubber band around the waist and make their dresses. We cut their hair. We put eye shadow on them with a ballpoint pen! It sounds ratchet, but we thought our Barbies were fly back then! So it’s real cool to now have a Barbie in my own image. I never imagined that. …It’s lovely to be honored, especially with a beautiful, Black, filmmakin’ Barbie with locs!” _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/07/ava-duvernay-barbie-doll-released) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ## Transcript Well they don't teach anything about Dr. King or the Civil Rights Movement in ,- Is that true? In schools. In the UK? Well it's the United Kingdom, not the United States. No. But he's a worldwide icon. What do you know about the United Kingdom in your schools? Oh. True. Touche. [ LAUGH ] But, you know, Dr. King is an icon, in the same way that Mandela is an icon, in the same way that Gandhi is an icon, and so, therefore, you are aware. Aware of him, and I was aware of him admittedly in a very peripheral way. What I need to know right now what' Martin Luther King about to do next? I have a dream. I can think of nothing worse than having to do the I have a. I Have a Dream speech. I mean really, I, I, it's like doing to be or not to be in Hamlet. It's just at that point not to denigrate the speech. It's a bit like doing a karaoke song. What you want in playing a character like Dr. King is you want it to a revelatory otherwise go and watch a documentary, go and read a book. One of the genius, elements of. Of Selma is choosing to do just those three months because ironically you get more of a sense of the man by going into a time where he's under pressure. [ INAUDIBLE ] when a mans stands up and says enough is enough. These are all the things that reveal who the human being. Is great storytelling, great, writing, is always going through the highest moment of tension. The deepest moment of conflict. And that's what this represented. And it's also the greatest moment of triumph for this, for SCLC. [ MUSIC ] You think about a couple of years ago, where we were very focused on the tragedy around Oscar Grant. And we would say, Oscar. Oscar Grant. We think about last year when we were talking about Trayvon Martin, we'd say the Trayvon Case. Around this summer, we kept hearing, Ferguson, which is the name of a whole community. Similar to the way people talk about Sama and not when Jenny legi, Jackson and it, something different. A catalyst that has triggered action within a whole community and a community that. You know, stands up to police aggression, raises its hand and says breaking up a black body is not acceptable. And maybe not knowing exactly how to articulate that. And maybe it comes out initially in rage or unrest or whatever but, it's been really beautiful to me over the last months to see the way that that unrest has blossomed. [ MUSIC ] Into a very targeted civil disobedience, with a lot of boots on the ground. A lot of people really organizing themselves. Selma is not a film that takes place in the context of history. You watch those images, and you, you understand how it feels to be someone in 1955, being shocked about what they see on TV. 'Cuz it just happened to you in August. 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