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(Reuters) --
British primatologist Jane Goodall fulfilled her dream of having her own Barbie doll to inspire girls.
Mattel Inc. introduced a new Barbie honoring Goodall, which the company says is made from recycled plastic, as part of its "Inspiring Women" series, nodding to Goodall's groundbreaking chimpanzee studies and conservation efforts. .
Jane Goodall Barbie doll and David Greybeard chimpanzee along with accessory products, in Los Angeles, USA, April 2022. Credit: Jane Goodall Institute/Handout via Reuters.
Dressed in a khaki shirt and shorts and with a notebook in hand, the Goodall doll wears a pair of binoculars around her neck and David Greybeard at her side, a replica of the first chimpanzee who trusted the primatologist while conducting her research. research in Gombe National Park, in what is now Tanzania, in East Africa.
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"I wanted there to be a doll of me even before this idea came up. I've seen...little girls playing with Barbie dolls and certainly at first they were all very girly and I thought little girls need...some option," Goodall told Reuters.
Jane Goodall holds the new Barbie doll.
Credit: Jane Goodall Institute/Handout/Reuters
"Mattel has changed their range of dolls and there are all kinds of astronauts and doctors and things like that. A lot of kids learn about me at school. They'll be thrilled to have the Barbie doll."
Goodall, 88, began research in East Africa in 1960, noting that chimpanzees make tools, hunt and eat meat, and show compassion, among other traits.
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"When I got to Gombe, it was beautiful, my dream had come true," he said.
"But for four months the chimpanzees ran away from me... so although the forest was wonderful, I didn't get to enjoy it until David Greybeard lost his fear and helped the others lose it too."
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Mattel said it would also partner with the Jane Goodall Institute and its Roots & Shoots youth service movement to help teach children about their environmental impact.
"I see us at the mouth of a very long, very dark tunnel, with a little bright star at the end, and there's no use sitting at the mouth of the tunnel and saying 'Oh, I hope that star will come to us.' Hope is about acting," Goodall said.
"We... work around all these obstacles between us and the star, which are climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, unsustainable lifestyles, pollution, you name it. And as we go through tunnel, we reach out to each other, because there are people working on each of these issues, but they often work in silos.
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