The latest barbie Chic blue polka dot crop top, ruffled mini skirt, thick heels and slay with an insulin pump. She is the first doll on the brand of type 1 diabetes.

Dollmaker Mattel collaborated with the groundbreaking T1D, previously known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, to design dolls aimed at representing around 304,000 children and teens in the United States along with type 1 diabetes.

The doll was launched Tuesday at the breakthrough of T1D Children’s Congress, a three-day event in Washington. This year, they are asking Congress to renew funding for the special diabetes program, originally allocated by Congress in 1997. Current funding for the program will end after September.

Advocacy efforts have sparked new urgency this year. After deep cutting of federally funded projects in recent months, Breakthrough T1D said he is worried to see if the funds will be rescinded again.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body accidentally attacks its own organs and tissues. In this case, rogue antibodies chase the cells in the pancreas that make insulin, an essential hormone that helps the body turn food into energy. As a result, the body does not produce enough insulin of its own, so people must take insulin at the injection or pump to survive.

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood, but can be diagnosed by anyone of all ages. It’s different to type 2 diabetes, people can still make insulin, but their cells stop responding to it.

In addition to the insulin pump that sticks to the new Barbie’s waist, the beauty of chestnut hair has a continuous glucose monitor in her arms. Her phone will display an app showing her glucose readings. She also has a light blue wallet to hold her supplies and snacks to help her manage her blood sugar levels all day. Of course, it matches her shoes.

Emily Mazrek, director of marketing and communications for Breakthrough T1D, worked with Type 1 diabetes and worked with Mattel to design the doll. The Barbie phone app displays a snapshot of actual blood sugar readings from the day during the design process. Barbie’s blood sugar level is 130 milligrams of sugar per blood decilitor, which is in the normal range. Most people with diabetes try to maintain blood sugar levels between 70 and 180 mg/dl. The continuous glucose monitor has a graph showing the heights and low values that can occur during the day. Blue polka dots nod to the colours and symbols for diabetes recognition.

Mazreku spent nearly two years keeping focus groups to get feedback on the doll’s features and making sure it represents the entire type 1 diabetes community.

“Mattel came close to us and they wanted this to be part of their fashionista line,” Mazrek said. “And we immediately jumped at the opportunity.”

The line has over 175 different appearances, including various skin tones, eyes, and hair colors. It includes Barbie with behind the scenes hearing aids, a blind man with a cane, and another doll with prosthetic legs. There are also dolls with vitiligo, which is a condition in which the skin loses pigment and becomes spotted.

In an email to CNN, Mattel spokesman Devin Duff said:

The company said the blind Barbie and Down syndrome dolls were one of the most popular fashionista dolls in the world in 2024.

The company launched its first doll in 1997 with a Disability, a friend of Barbie called Share-a-Smile Becky, who used a wheelchair.

Dr. Sian Jones, co-founder of the Toy Box Diversity Lab at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland, said that insights are part of the value of playing with dolls with disabilities for children.

Jones and her colleague Dr. Claire Wightman are studying how playing with dolls and toys on a variety of physical challenges can reduce systemic inequality among people with disabilities.

This is based on the theory of mirrors and windows by Rudine Sims Bishop, professor of education at Ohio State University. Bishop realized that having diverse characters in a book is a good thing for all children. Children in minority groups help to put mirrors into the lives of characters in the book, give children windows into the lives of others, and help build empathy.

Jones says when children play with dolls with mobility challenges, for example, it helps them identify and understand the struggles of people with disabilities they encounter in real life.

“Barbie, a wheelchair, cannot use a doll’s house in kindergarten classrooms, so for example, she needs to build a lamp so she can access the doors of the doll’s house,” said Jones, who lives with cerebral palsy.

When she began working on incorporating disabled dolls into the school curriculum, Jones said there was little to buy. She mainly had to make them herself. Now she can buy them from big companies like LEGO and Mattel.

Mazrek says the work of designing the doll is worth it. She recently brought home to give her 3-year-old daughter.

“I gave her the opportunity to take Barbie home and interact with her and see her,” Mazrek said. “And she looked at me and said, ‘She looks like a mom.’ And it was very special to me. ”

Her daughter does not have type 1 diabetes, she said. “But she sees me every day, lives with it, expresses the world, understands it, and wears my device with confidence.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallyed the highest number of measles cases in the United States since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the disease to be eliminated a quarter century ago.

CDC data shows that measles cases have been found in the US this year as the disease was declared eliminated in a quarter century. There are at least 1,288 confirmed cases.

Midway through the year, the Case Tally has already surpassed previous records since 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases. And since the disease was declared excluded in the United States in 2000, it has well surpassed the average of around 180 measles cases reported each year.

CNN reported this new milestone on Saturday. Using data from Johns Hopkins University Outbreak-Responsive Innovation, More often than CDC.

Childhood vaccine coverage has been declining in the US, with the majority of measles cases this year (over 90%) in people who have not been vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the CDC.

When measles cases reached previous records in 2019 – During the first Trump administration, both the CDC director and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary issued a statement highlighting the safety and efficacy of the measles-Munz-Luvera (MMR) vaccine and encouraging Americans to be vaccinated.

But almost six months after Trump’s second term, with the CDC still missing a director, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long and complicated history with the measles vaccine.

In a statement Wednesday, the agency said the company “continues to support the community’s efforts in dealing with the measles outbreak,” and “The CDC continues to provide technical assistance, laboratory support and vaccines as requested.” The statement did not specifically address the new measles milestone, instead focusing on population-level case rates and the echoes of the language Kennedy used for the vaccine.

“The CDC continues to recommend the MMR vaccine as the best way to protect against measles. The vaccine decision is personal,” the statement said. “People need to consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options for getting vaccinated and notify them of the potential risks and benefits associated with the vaccine.”

Concerns about vaccine skepticism were front and center on Wednesday as members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee vote to lead the entire Senate vote to advance President Donald Trump’s candidate.

Committee members voted 12-11 to move Monares’ nomination. All Republicans on the committee supported longtime immunologists and government scientists. He spoke at a confirmation hearing on restoring confidence in the CDC, defending Kennedy’s decision to replace members of federal vaccine advisors.

The vote brings Monares a step closer to taking the helm in public health agencies, and she is now on the Senate vote.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and doctor, voted to advance Monales’ nomination, but nodded at vaccine coverage and an ongoing outbreak of measles.

“Dr. Monales will work to protect sensitive health information in America while modernizing the data health system and improving public health coordination and response,” Cassidy said. “This is especially important as the country fights the re-emergence of public health threats like measles that have killed three lives in the United States this year.”

He continued: “What’s not included but tragic: A pregnant Canadian woman was exposed to measles and lost her child.

Cassidy pressed Kennedy publicly last month to delay a meeting of the health agency’s new vaccine advisors. Some of them have expressed skepticism and safety concerns about long-term approved vaccinations amid concerns about their bias.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, asked the committee to hold a hearing on the ongoing measles outbreak and reforms to Kennedy’s vaccine surveillance.

“I am worried because I feel that this committee has largely abandoned any serious surveillance of this crisis,” she said. “There were no hearings about a record number of measles outbreaks or how the CDC vaccine panels stack up with people who have not actually been reviewed.

Murray said Congressional oversight of these actions is necessary.

“I really hope that Dr. Monares goes against my expectations. I hope that she will stand up to science and put public health first. But again, I want that for others.

Some health experts have highlighted the importance of vaccination rates and their fears about the precedent set under Kennedy’s HHS leadership.

“It’s not surprising that under Secretary Kennedy’s watch, the widest generational outbreak of measles has occurred,” Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, said in a statement Wednesday..

“His decades-long campaign to continue to trust vaccines without waning in his time as Health Secretary has directly contributed to the surprising decline in our country’s everyday childhood immunization rates, resulting in a more frequent outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said. “And more, dramatic funding cuts in public health means small outbreaks will grow and spread.”

Three people died of measles this year in the United States. Two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were not vaccinated.

“I’m worried that Chief Kennedy’s misconduct will force more children to pay with their lives and health,” Besser said. “As a pediatrician, I highly recommend that all parents talk to their healthcare providers, listen to local public health officials and learn about the facts about the incredibly effective and safe measles vaccine.”

The MMR vaccine is extremely effective. According to the CDC, one dose provides 93% protection against measles, while two doses are 97% effective.

“Vaccinations work – stop. They are one of the most powerful tools needed to protect patients, families and the entire community. They can prevent illness through vaccines, but they are beginning to reappear as there are so many diseases we once controlled that we choose to slow or skip immunity.

“There is a lot of confusion about vaccinations, but patients don’t have to navigate this alone. Family physicians, pediatricians, pharmacists and other public health workers can help patients stay through all the information and get through the noise,” she said. “The bottom line is that vaccines are safe, effective and life-saving. It’s important to continue to protect our health across the nation, not just individual families.”