--- title: Misty Copeland Barbie: Photo description: The doll, which debuted Monday, wears a bright red replica of Copeland's costume from Igor Stravinsky's 'Firebird' canonical: https://time.com/4314260/misty-copeland-barbie/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-02T16:29:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:01.703Z og:title: Misty Copeland Now Has Her Own Barbie og:description: Dancing into a toy aisle near you og:url: https://time.com/4314260/misty-copeland-barbie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f7840f7040952f8/698891720a4a22ed8f9c97c1/barbie-misty-copeland.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Barbie-Misty-Copeland og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Misty Copeland Now Has Her Own Barbie twitter:description: Dancing into a toy aisle near you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f7840f7040952f8/698891720a4a22ed8f9c97c1/barbie-misty-copeland.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Misty Copeland Now Has Her Own Barbie  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 2, 2016 4:29 PM UTC  Mattel  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 2, 2016 4:29 PM UTC Mattel introduced a Barbie doll of ballerina [Misty Copeland](http://time.com/3823308/misty-copeland-2015-time-100/), the first African-American woman to be named a principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater. The doll, which debuted Monday, wears a bright red replica of Copeland’s costume from Igor Stravinsky’s _Firebird_, a role that the dancer will reprise later this month. The toy is part of Barbie’s “Sheroes” collection, which includes dolls of other entertainers like [Ava DuVernay](http://time.com/4138236/ava-duvernay-barbie/), Emmy Rossum, Kristin Chenoweth, Trisha Yearwood and [Zendaya](http://time.com/4041971/barbie-zendaya-doll/). “Misty Copeland is at the center of a cultural conversation around how women continue to break boundaries,” Lisa McKnight, general manager and senior vice president for Barbie, [said in a statement](http://www.barbiemedia.com/news/detail/144.html). “We know role play often leads to real ‘play’ in life.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4314260/misty-copeland-barbie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4314260/misty-copeland-barbie/"},"headline":"Misty Copeland Now Has Her Own Barbie","datePublished":"2016-05-02T16:29:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:01.703Z","description":"Dancing into a toy aisle near you","url":"https://time.com/4314260/misty-copeland-barbie/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f7840f7040952f8/698891720a4a22ed8f9c97c1/barbie-misty-copeland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f7840f7040952f8/698891720a4a22ed8f9c97c1/barbie-misty-copeland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barbie-Misty-Copeland","caption":"","creditText":"Mattel","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4314260/misty-copeland-barbie/","name":"Misty Copeland Now Has Her Own Barbie"}}]}] ```