Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is honoured in latest line of Barbie dolls among other inspirational women

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and her sisters Anne and Janet are two of a series of seven new Barbie dolls to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 and female pioneers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Before you look to pre-order one of the new dolls, prepare to be disappointed - Mattel has said these one-of-a-kind dolls are not for sale and will be gifted to the women who inspired them.

It’s another progressive step for the doll manufacturer, which is set to become the toy du jour later this year when the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling led Barbie movie drops in July. Sometimes viewed as unfairly “eye candy” or an unrealistic expectation of women during its heyday, Barbie has had some impressive jobs on her resume in the last twenty years, including being a leader of economic business and a scientist.

But it is nothing compared to the triumvirate of successes the sisters Wojcicki have experienced in their lives. Susan Wojcicki is regularly viewed as the godmother of YouTube, having sublet her garage in Menlo Park, California to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who years later bought the property as a means of honouring where Google started.

Susan became the CEO of YouTube in 2014 with Adweek calling her "the most important person in advertising," as well as named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2015, with the latter publication stating she was the most important woman on the internet. She only stepped down from her position in February 2023 citing a renewed focus on "family, health, and personal projects" but would be taking on an advisory role across Google and its parent company Alphabet.

Meanwhile, Anne Wojcicki is probably best known as the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, which she founded with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza in 2006 to provide regular-waged people access to their genetic information. Today, 23andMe has become a household name in the United States, with numerous pharmaceutical companies investing and working with the company - including a four-year deal with GlaxoSmithKline to develop new medicines in 2018.

Though perhaps not to the same business acclaim as her sisters Susan and Anne, Janet has still managed to forge an incredible career as an adjunct professor of anthropology and epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco. Her research in the development of obesity in high-risk areas led her to develop international expertise, particularly in sub-Saharan African populations, in evaluating the relationship between nutritional factors and HIV and HHV-8 infection and progression.

Who else is being honoured by Mattel for International Women’s Day 2023?

The Wojcicki Sisters are only three of the STEM-inspired Barbie dolls that Mattel is making for other pioneers in their (historically male-dominated) fields.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a space scientist and educator from the United Kingdom; Antje Boetius, a marine researcher and microbiologist from Germany; Li Yinuo, co-founder of ETU Education, a school startup in China that offers a more personalised education; and Katya Echazarreta, an electrical engineer who has worked on five NASA missions and the first woman born in Mexico to travel to space are all set to be honoured with their own Barbie dolls.

The creation has become a recent move from the company, who previously honoured television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes with her own Barbie doll last year and style icon Iris Apfel in 2018. They also honoured primatologist Jane Goodall in 2002 with her own Barbie doll - unlike the previously mentioned dolls however, this one was for public sale at the time of release.