The National Association of State Foresters (NASF America) were quick off the mark with the film release of Barbie in July 2023. They produced a suite of forestry careers in a Facebook post less than two weeks later!
I have no idea if you ever had Barbies or have bought them in recent times – I didn’t and haven’t. Using the series of Career Barbies, a genius at the NASF came up with job descriptions and images for:
Forest Barbie (‘Eco leadership team’ Barbie set)
Forest Ranger (Park Ranger Barbie)
Urban Forester (Conservationist Barbie)
Forest Scientist (Scientist Barbie)
Wildfire Firefighter (Firefighter Barbie)
Forest Entomologist (Entomologist Barbie)
The job descriptions are short, fun, and got me thinking. How could we use Barbie to promote the range of careers in forestry, targeted at young females in particular? They make great props for discussing the range of careers in multipurpose sustainable forestry, including the PPE and equipment used.
Whilst down the Barbie online rabbit hole, I discovered Forest Ecologist, Nalini Nadkarni, from the University of Utah who had this idea 15 years ago. She wanted girls to have a Barbie doll representing a career like hers, or at least one that wore rubber boots and carried a climbing rope and helmet. With a distinct lack of tree canopy field gear among the existing accouterments for Barbie, Nadkarni made her own ‘Treetop Barbies’ for years, from charity store finds and handmade accessories. Recently Nadkarni worked with National Geographic and Mattel to create a series of Barbies centred around science, research and exploration, including Entomologist Barbie.
From a learning perspective, other themes can be drawn out with the Barbie props, not least the sustainability one as Barbie is plastic through and through (maybe time for a wooden Barbie?). But will it work?
Sapna Cheryan, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, reckons toys and props are great ways to engage with children and young people, although whether a Barbie dressed as a forester, for example, could influence a career choice remains to be seen. Mind you, as Cheryan says, ‘considering the reach Barbie has, why not try’?
Just maybe avoid using Barbies in a presentation dressed as Weird Barbie.
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Sally York MICFor
Sally is a qualified teacher (secondary science), Chartered Forester and has an MSc in Outdoor, Environmental and Sustainable Education from Edinburgh University. Before retiring, she was the Education Policy Advisor at Scottish Forestry which involved overseeing the development of the Outdoor and Woodland Learning Scotland network, supporting the growth of Forest School and Forest Kindergarten and developing resources for learning and career options for schools and others. Sally worked with national partners (government, third sector and others) to enable more adults (teacher and others) to take their children outdoors for learning and play; in the school estate, locally or to places further away.
With thanks to:
Emilie Austin from the National Association of State Foresters 2023
Outdoor and Woodland Learning Scotland for allowing me to try these ideas out (dressed as Weird Barbie)
