Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
INDIANAPOLIS — Ten-year-old Emily Del Vecchio loves Barbie's long blond hair.
It reminds her of a time when Emily had long blond hair before bone cancer came, along with long hospital stays and chemotherapy.
Emily relates to a different image more these days, one of Barbie without hair. Until recently though, there wasn't such an image.
A campaign on Facebook, one which calls for a bald Barbie, has changed all that. Mattel has announced it will be creating a doll, a friend of Barbie, who will be bald.
"I like it," Emily said of the idea. "It's OK to be bald," she added.
Emily has had to learn that, though and it hasn't been an easy lesson. "I was afraid people would laugh at me," she said.
"It was very very traumatic. She didn't want to be seen in public," recalled her dad, Joe Del Vecchio, of the early days when Emily first lost her hair. "I think it's a great step towards legitimatizing the fact that hair doesn't make the person."
Mattel has made the decision not to sell the doll in retail stores, but instead to distribute the dolls to children's hospitals across the country.
But one teenager says a bald Barbie doll belongs right in the mainstream, where all kids can learn from her.
"If you're wanting to make a Barbie doll that's different, and you're wanting to show kids who are different that they can be different, why not show it to normal kids so that they can accept the different kids," said 15-year-old Olivia Rusk.
Olivia knows what's its like to love Barbie, but not look anything like her. "I grew up wanting to be blonde," she said.
Instead, Olivia grew up bald because of alopecia, a condition that makes her hair fall out.
"I would sit in my room and braid the Barbie's hair, because I couldn't braid my hair," Olivia recalled. "If I had had a bald Barbie, I know I would have been able to cope with my baldness a lot easier."
Today, Olivia copes just fine.
She speaks to kids about looking different and has even written a book about it, titled "Just Your Average Teenager Who Happens to Be Bald."
"Being different is OK," Olivia said of the book's message.
Emily Del Vecchio is learning that too.
"It's one little step just to take the hair off a doll," says Emily's dad Joe.
Now Emily's got Barbie on her side to teach her that.
