Black haircare pioneer Madam C.J. Walker is immortalized as a Barbie doll

Madam C.J. Walker — America’s first documented female self-made millionaire — is being immortalized as the newest doll in Barbie’s Inspiring Women Series. 

The African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist made her fortune after launching a line of haircare products marketed specifically for black women in the 19th century. 

Mattel’s release of the historical Barbie honoring Walker’s legacy coincides with August’s Black Business Month. 

‘As a pioneer in entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and activism, creating the blueprint for the self-made American businesswoman and innovators of the twentieth century, Madam C.J. Walker is an embodiment of our Barbie Inspiring Women series,’ Lisa McKnight, executive vice president and global head of Barbie and dolls for Mattel, said in a statement. 

Walker was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist

‘We’re honored to welcome her into this group of trailblazing women and introduce more kids to her journey of becoming one of the nation’s first widely successful female founders.’ 

Mattel enlisted Walker’s great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles — author of ‘On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker’ — to help with the creation of the Barbie.

Bundles, who became a doll collector as an adult, weighed in on everything from the doll’s packaging to hair development, Yahoo Life reported. 

The doll is dressed in a purple floral blouse and a turquoise skirt, which were two of Walker’s favorite colors, according to her great-great-granddaughter. 

Her accessories include pearl drop earrings, turquoise booties, and a miniature replica of Madam C.J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower. 

Printed inside the Barbie’s box is a recreation of a vintage photo of Walker’s New York estate featuring several hundreds of her sales agents.

Walker made her fortune launching a line of haircare products for black women in the 19th century

‘To be able to have Madam C.J. Walker included in Barbie’s Inspiring Women Series means her story will go out across the world in a way it never has before,’ Bundles told Yahoo Life. ‘To know little girls and big girls will have access to Madam Walker and just that physical symbolism of her story means it’s going to be exploding exponentially in a way it never has before.’

Barbie’s Inspiring Women Series was launched in 2018 to pay tribute to boundary-breaking historical figures, including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Jean King, and Rosa Parks. 

Ida B. Wells — who was a friend of Walker’s — and Jane Goodall were honored as dolls earlier this year, while Maya Angelou, Helen Keller, and Eleanor Roosevelt became a part of the series in 2021.  

Priced at $35, Walker’s Barbie has already sold out on the Mattel website following its release on Wednesday. 

‘For little girls, I think there’s a real message in the way they play,’ Bundles said. ‘They can look at somebody like Madam C.J. Walker and maybe see themselves as an entrepreneur — maybe see themselves as a person who is involved in social justice.’ 

Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana, in 1867. She spent her early years growing up on the cotton plantation where her parents and older siblings had been enslaved before becoming sharecroppers, the New York Post reported. 

Walker’s doll is dressed in a purple floral blouse and a turquoise skirt, which were two of her favorite colors

The doll comes with a miniature replica of Madam C.J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower

When she was seven, she became an orphan and was sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to live with her sister and brother-in-law, who forced her to work in the fields and wash clothes to earn her keep.

She was 14 when she married her first husband, Moses McWilliams, and they welcomed their daughter, Lelia McWilliams, in June 1885. She was a widowed, single mother by the time she was 20.

When Lelia was three, they moved to St. Louis, where her three brothers owned a barber shop. She learned to read in 1889.

At the end of a failed second marriage to John Davis, Walker’s hair began to fall out due to damage caused by harsh materials in her hair product. A local chemist taught her how to make her own formula using sulfur, beeswax, and fragrance.

In 1906, Walker took the name of her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, and launched Madam C.J. Walker — one of the first hair-straightening products marketed specifically to black women.

She also developed a network to empower black women by hiring them as salespeople across the country.

Mattel enlisted Walker’s great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles to help with the creation of the Barbie. She weighed in on everything from the doll’s packaging to hair development

Printed inside the Barbie’s box is a recreation of a vintage photo of Walker’s New York estate featuring several hundreds of her sales agents

Walker was later declared the first recorded self-made millionairess by Guinness World Records. She divorced her third husband in 1912.

Lelia, who adopted her stepfather’s surname and became known as A’Lelia Walker, was in her early 30s and living in Harlem when she encouraged her to move to New York City with her in 1916.

Together, they fraternized with journalists such as Wells and W.E.B DuBois, hosted salons with the writers Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and took on leadership roles with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Hughes dubbed A’Lelia the ‘Joy Goddess of the Harlem Renaissance.’ 

In 1917, Walker began scouting for a weekend estate, when a real estate agent suggested a three-acre plot of land in Irvington.

The Hudson river town’s residents thought it impossible that a black woman could afford to build an Italianate manse right on the main road, but they were proven wrong.

Walker hired the state’s first licensed black architect Vertner Woodson Tandy to design Villa Lewaro, a $250,000 three-story stucco villa with a tiered terrace that led to a swimming pool.

‘To be able to have Madam C.J. Walker included in Barbie’s Inspiring Women Series means her story will go out across the world in a way it never has before,’ Bundles told Yahoo Life 

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer portrayed Walker in the 2020 Netflix series ‘Self Made: Inspired By The Life Of Madam C.J. Walker’  

She was only able to live in the estate for a year before she died of kidney failure at 51 in 1919. The home was left in her daughter’s care.

The millionaire had it in her will that after A’Lelia’s death Villa Lewaro would go to the NAACP, but property taxes and costs associated with the home were too much for the organization. It was sold in 1932, and it became a retirement home for 40 years.

Harold Doley, the founder of Doley Securities, LLC, the oldest African-American-owned investment banking firm in the nation purchased the estate in 1993. 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation had the property designated as a National Treasure in 2014. Four years later, it was sold to the New Voices Foundation founded by Riche­lieu Den­nis.  

Dennis, the founder of Sun­dial Brands cos­met­ics com­pany, a sub­sidiary of Unilever, proposed last year that the historic home be used as a think tank called the Madam C. J. Walker In­sti­tute for Women of Color En­tre­pre­neurs.

The foundation will fund seminars and workshops dedicated to ‘ed­u­cat­ing, em­pow­er­ing and up­lift­ing women of color en­tre­pre­neurs.’ The home will also host charitable events and private tours. 

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer portrayed Walker in the 2020 Netflix series ‘Self Made: Inspired By The Life Of Madam C.J. Walker.’