Hayley Caronia

And a lot of the...

like spokespeople that they had were adults.

They were adults talking about Barbie and what this representation means to them.

They also say that the doll has a different eye gaze that is shifted slightly to the side, which reflects how some members of the autistic community may avoid direct eye contact.

The autistic Barbie doll also comes with a pink finger clip fidget spinner that

noise-canceling headphones, and a tablet.

The fidget spinner is supposed to be a sensory outlet that can help reduce stress and improve focus.

Then the headphones are a fashionable accessory that reduces sensory overload by blocking out background noise.

And then the tablet is a screen that serves as a tool to help with everyday communication.

And then apparently this dress is autistic,

person friendly, it's loose fitting, and it has short sleeves and a flowy skirt that provides less fabric to skin contact.

So these are all of the ways that Mattel thinks that this Barbie is appealing to the autistic community.

And it's all make-believe.

It is all make-believe.

Any single Barbie, the Barbies that I grew up with, if I want them to be autistic, they can be autistic.

You can have your regular Barbie be autistic if you want.

You can use your imagination and your Barbie doll can really be anything.

And most of the time, you know, the clothes and accessories for me and my experience playing with Barbie dolls as a kid, they're so hard to put on the Barbies that most of my dolls spent their days fully naked.

They were fully in the nude.

because it was too difficult to put the clothes on them.