Mattel's Barbie 'computer engineer' book showed her needing boys to code — then backfired

Mattel's 'Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer' was a children's book first published in 2010 as part of a line meant to show girls they could be anything. In 2014 it went viral for the wrong reasons. In the story, Barbie tells her friends she is 'only creating the design ideas' for a game and will 'need Steven and Brian's help to turn it into a real game.' When she crashes her laptop and her sister Skipper's, it is the boys who rescue her.

Comedian and author Pamela Ribon drew the internet's attention to the book in November 2014, and criticism spread quickly, piling onto a string of negative Amazon reviews. Readers pointed out that Barbie ignored her female computer teacher's advice and waited for two boys to save the day — the opposite of the 'I Can Be' message the brand was selling. The book had sat unnoticed for four years; once quoted aloud, it became a symbol.

Mattel apologised and pulled the title from online sale. The portrayal of Barbie, it said, 'doesn't reflect the brand's vision for what Barbie stands for,' adding that 'girls should be empowered to understand that anything is possible' and that all future Barbie titles would 'portray an empowered Barbie character.' The book's author said she wished she had made one of the programmers female.