Ashley Graham: I wish that there was a Barbie that looked like me when I was younger

Did you know that HGTV is doing a series to tie in with the release of Barbie? I did, because my mother has been sounding the alarm, sending me weekly reminders of its imminent arrival followed by more frequent ones this weekend in the lead-up to Sunday’s premiere. Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge is a Mattel-Warner Bros-HGTV brainchild that will conveniently fill in for the lack of actor promotion in the wake of the SAG-AFTRA strike. It’s your typical reality competition show, and though the rules are a bit overwrought, here is the basic gist: two-member design teams are each given 1-2 rooms to redecorate to turn a Southern Californian home into Barbie’s Dreamhouse, and each team will be assigned a specific decade of Barbie fashion to imbue their room(s) with.

Hosting the series is supermodel Ashley Graham, who’s been immortalized as a Barbie doll herself and proved her hosting chops earlier this year when attempting an interview with Hugh Grant at the Oscars. Ahead of the show’s Sunday premiere, Ashley spoke with Yahoo about the show (for the record, hosts fall under the entertainment/broadcast journalists SAG-AFTRA category and are NOT on strike right now, that’s only members with a TV/Theatrical contract) and she shared her thoughts on Barbie’s ability to champion body positivity:

On her relationship with Barbie growing up: “It was a fun doll to play with, and I think like many women my age, I grew up thinking, ‘Why aren’t my thighs touching? What are her breasts so perky? Why does she look so perfect?’” she shares. “It was a conversation that I had a lot growing up with my mom.” In 2015, Mattel focused on making Barbie more diverse in every way. It manufactured dolls with different skin tones, hair textures and four different body types (original, curvy, petite and tall).

What it meant to have Mattel make a Barbie of her: “I screeched,” she recalls. “I wish that there was a Barbie that looked like me when I was younger and so that was such an honor.” Graham says she felt “no pressure at all” over the fact there was going to be a Barbie in her likeness. Instead she was relieved there would “finally” be a doll out there “that young girls who are curvy can relate to. I was like so many other young girls. I just wanted to see my body type portrayed, but you don’t know how to express it. You’re just a moody little girl, and you look in the mirror, and you’re upset because there’s nobody talking about back fat. There’s no one talking about cellulite,” she explains.

Just wait for America Ferrera’s monologue in the movie: The social media star says she absolutely thinks the movie showcases body positivity and reflects various beauty standards. “I’m not giving away anything, but America Ferrera has this whole monologue that I have told all of my friends [about],” Graham teases. “When she is done with that monologue, all you say is ‘Hell yeah!’ It’s like you’re in church and you just start screaming because she just preached for all of us. It was that part I really felt [seen].”

On hosting the HGTV show: Graham is partnering with the iconic brand once again for Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge. The show features eight teams of HGTV stars and one Food Network chef as they transform a Southern California home into a life-size Barbie mansion. “Every room is dedicated to a different era of Barbie. There’s ‘90s, ‘80s, past, present, future… Graham says Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge will leave viewers feeling equally uplifted. “I want people to feel like they had a bit of nostalgia, that they had fun, and also just feel the Barbie magic again because there are so many of those magical moments that they put throughout the show. And I know as I was filming it, I had such a great time. So, I really hope the people that watch it feel the same,” she reveals, adding: “Barbie is all of us.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

First off, I love Ashley saying “I’m not giving anything away, but I’ve told all my friends about this monologue from the unreleased movie.” Cracks me up. Moving on to (slightly) more serious matters, having watched the first episode I can say that the issue of representation is front and center, but not in a preachy way! Obviously the producers are prompting the discussion, but it felt natural when the designers would talk about what the debut of a certain kind of Barbie meant to them. And from what Ashley teases, it sounds like the movie also drives home the themes of representation and body positivity. I don’t see how, in 2023, you could approach Barbie any other way.

As for the actual design part of the show, that’s where Barbie sells herself. It is SO GOOD! The first episode had 2 teams vying off (again, I cannot explain all the rules to you, all I know is the house will be fully done by the end) and their assigned decades were ‘60s and ‘90s, respectively, and the details those designers crammed in everywhere… I don’t do drugs but this is what makes me high. I may spontaneously combust when the movie finally comes out.

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