One of the three mathematicians depicted in the hit movie "Hidden Figures" will soon have her own Barbie doll.
Mattel announced on Wednesday, ahead of International Women's Day on Thursday, that they will sell a doll that looks like Katherine Johnson, the NASA employee Taraji P. Henson played in the 2016 film.
The Katherine Johnson doll is part of Mattel's Inspiring Women line of dolls.
"Girls have always been able to play out different roles and careers with Barbie, and we are thrilled to shine a light on real-life role models to remind them that they can be anything," company vice president Lisa McKnight said in a statement.
The doll wears a pink dress and has black-rimmed glasses, a pearl necklace and a NASA badge around its neck.
It's set to go on sale May 10, a Mattel spokeswoman told News4. A feature on Mattel's website will notify fans when the dolls are available.
Johnson told News4's Barbara Harrison last year, at age 98, that she misses her job at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
“I miss working,” she said. “I worked all my life, all kinds of jobs.”
Johnson was a NASA mathematician and physicist. She was among the first African-American women to work for NASA during the space race in the 1950s and 1960s.
She was hired to work as a human computer. She calculated the trajectory of NASA’s first American-manned flight into space. Her figures were so accurate that when NASA switched to computers, they had her double-check the results. Math didn’t challenge her. The bigger challenge was overcoming racial prejudice.
Mattel's Inspiring Women series also includes dolls that look like Amelia Earhart and Frida Kahlo.
Eighty-one percent of moms included in a survey commissioned by Mattel said they were worried about the type of role models to which their young daughters are exposed.
The company asked fans to write on social media about female role models that inspire them, using #MoreRoleModels.
