WNBA star Angel Reese contradicted history, and possibly herself, while claiming she didn’t have dolls that looked like her growing up.
The Atlanta Dream star reached a new level of prestige last month when Mattel presented a Barbie doll bearing her likeness, including a pink jersey with Reese’s No. 5. The doll was followed by a Barbie edition of her signature sneaker, Angel Reese 1, and a “Barbie Game Day” at State Farm Arena for the Atlanta Dream. During a press conference this week, however, Reese cast some shade on that impressive achievement when she suggested that she wasn’t big into dolls as a kid because they didn’t resemble her.
“Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of dolls because I didn’t have dolls that really looked like me much,” Reese said.
“That’s why I kind of really wanted to make sure this was super intentional, because now that they have a doll that looks like you, nails and hair, but also you can be a killer on the court as well,” she added.
While Reese did not explicitly say that black Barbie dolls did not exist when she was a child, her statement that “now they have a doll that looks like you” could lead some to believe that’s what she was suggesting.
As noted by Fox News, black Barbie dolls go all the way back to 1968 – 34 years before Reese’s birth in 2002.
“Mattel introduced Christie, a Black character in Barbie’s world, in 1968,” noted the outlet. “The first doll officially named Black Barbie arrived in 1980, more than two decades before Reese was born. American Girl introduced Addy Walker in 1993.”
“And in 1998, Mattel sold officially licensed African-American NBA Barbie dolls wearing authentic team uniforms and packaged with basketballs,” it added. “That was four years before Reese was born, meaning that a Black basketball-playing Barbie existed before Angel Reese did.”
Reese’s comments also seemingly contradicted a social media post from July 30 in which she expressly admitted to “playing with Barbie dolls as a little girl” as she thanked Cosmopolitan for profiling the doll.
“Thank you, Cosmopolitan, for allowing me to express this full circle moment! From playing with Barbie dolls as a little girl to having my own-wearing my signature Reebok shoes,” she said. “Getting to put that doll in little girls’ hands at All-Star weekend, share that moment with the Boys & Girls Club, and watch their faces light up- that’s the dream. I can’t wait to see all of you with your Angel Barbie Dolls.”