The Naomi Osaka celebrity doll depicts her as herself at 23 years old, a professional tennis player from Japan.  The Black Label Barbie doll was released by Mattel on July 12, 2021 for an August 15 delivery and was designed by Carlye Nuera. The Naomi Osaka Barbie is part of Mattel’s Role Model Series and the Barbie Dream Gap Project.

The retail price was $29.99 and the first batch was sold out on the Mattel website less than 11 hours after it went up for presale and 3 hours after official mailing list announcement email. Pre-order sold out on Amazon on July 13th, about 36 hours later.

Osaka, with four Grand Slam wins, has been a #1 ranked singles player from the Women’s Tennis Association and played tennis for Japan in the  2021 Tokyo Olympics, losing in the third round.

Barbie®

NAOMI OSAKA

DOLL

“Don’t compare yourself to anyone because the path that you’re on is yours and yours only.”  – Naomi Osaka

Trained by her father at an early age, Naomi Osaka began her professional tennis career in 2013, rising through the ranks by defeating top players with her powerful forehand and 201 km/h serves. By 2016, Osaka was voted Newcomer of the Year, qualifying her to play in major tennis tournaments around the world and compete for her first world title. In 2018, she slammed into the history books, becoming the first Japanese player to win a major singles match. Osaka returned in 2019 to win another major title, propelling her rank as the number one tennis player in the world. On and off the court, Naomi has used her voice and her platform to speak out and highlight issues surrounding human rights and racial injustice. Cool and confident, Naomi Osaka is a powerful athlete and champion for change.

Girls need more role models like Naomi, because imagining they can be anything is just the beginning. Actually seeing that they can makes all the difference.

The tennis dress is a doll replica of the red, blue, and white Nike brushstroke design Osaka wore at the 2020 Australian Open. It is a one piece, sleeveless, open backed outfit with an attached white translucent sewn-in plaited skirt over shorts,  The tennis dress has see through net panels under the arms and  Velcro closures in the back strap and in the shorts for easy removal.

The accessories include a white plastic Nike swoosh visor (tacked to hair with white thread), plastic white pearl stud earrings, a black plastic wrist band, aqua Nike sneakers, a blue and white Yonnex label tennis racket with a red Yonex logo on the clear plastic string, and a yellow plastic tennis ball. 

The curly, rooted brown and blond hair is tied back in a pony tail and is fairly long (be careful styling it too much because it expands the more you fiddle with it). The face is painted with brown eyes, brown eyebrows, pink lips with a slight toothy smile, and three moles.

The doll is extremely articulated at the neck (ball joint that turns and tilts about 60 degrees), shoulders (ball joint that turns and bends abut 80 degrees, upper arm (joint that twists around), elbow (90 degree bend), wrists (180 degree bend and twists around), upper chest (bends back about 30 degrees) hips (legs spread sideways about 160 degrees, twist all the way around), upper thigh (joint twists all the way around), knees (bend back 120 degrees until they hit the thigh),  and ankles (bend 120 degrees and twist).  The feet are flat and fairly small and are only about 2/3 the length of the sneakers.

Included are a plastic clear post and black doll stand and a Mattel Certificate of Authenticity.

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