Hundreds of thousands of children have type 1 diabetes. Now, there’s a Barbie who has it, too

[Guest Rosariogipsy]

The latest Barbie slays in a chic blue polka-dot crop top, ruffled miniskirt, chunky heels and an insulin pump. She is the brand’s first doll with type 1 diabetes.
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Dollmaker Mattel worked with Breakthrough T1D, formerly known the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, to design the doll, which aims to represent the roughly 304,000 kids and teens living with type 1 diabetes in the United States.
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The doll launched Tuesday at the Breakthrough T1D Children’s Congress, a three-day event in Washington that brings in kids and teens living with the condition to meet with lawmakers. This year, they’re asking Congress to renew funding for the Special Diabetes Program, which was first allocated by Congress in 1997. The program’s current funding ends after September.

The advocacy efforts have taken on new urgency this year. With so many deep cuts to federally funded projects in recent months, Breakthrough T1D said it’s anxiously watching to see if this funding will be reupped.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, meaning the body mistakenly attacks its own organs and tissues. In this case, rough antibodies go after cells in the pancreas that make insulin, an essential hormone that helps the body turn food into energy. As a result, the body doesn’t make enough of its own insulin, so people have to take insulin by injection or though a pump to survive.

Type 1 diabetes is typically diagnosed in childhood but can be diagnosed in anyone at any age. It differs from type 2 diabetes, in which people are still able to make insulin but their cells stop responding to it.

In addition to the insulin pump that attaches to the new Barbie’s waist, the chestnut-haired beauty has a continuous glucose monitor on her arm – a button held on by a strip of heart-shaped Barbie-pink tape. Her cell phone displays an app that shows her glucose readings. She also has a light blue purse to hold her supplies and snacks to help her manage her blood sugar throughout the day. It matches her shoes, of course.