Barbie has unveiled its Career of the Year dolls, which highlight positions in which women are underrepresented. For 2024, Mattel debuts a set featuring Barbie in four moviemaking roles, inspired and sparked in part by the commercial and critical success of the Greta Gerwig-directed feature film, Barbie.
The four new dolls are:
- Barbie Studio Executive doll with an original body wears a two-piece outfit, comes with shoes and sunglasses, and includes a smartphone play piece.
- Barbie Director doll with a tall body wears a jumpsuit, shoes and headset, and comes with a movie script play piece.
- Barbie Movie Star doll with a curvy body wears a glamorous gown and heels, accessorizes with a necklace and bracelet, and comes with an award trophy.
- Barbie Cinematographer doll with a petite body wears a “Chase Dreams” top, plus pants and shoes, and comes with camera and clapboard accessories.
Barbie has worked in more than 250 professions–and counting–over the years. The filmmaking dolls add to that field of career possibilities.
From last night (1/9) through January 11 at 5:59am PT, Barbie Signature members can buy the Barbie Career of the Year Women in Film doll set at the Mattel Creations website while supplies last. During that time, the doll set may also be available online at Amazon, Target and Walmart.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More