Barbie in the Schools

“Barbie Club members are the best of our planet!” Lane Reddinger, Co-President of Gallatin High’s newest club was quoted saying, and it would seem she wasn’t far off. Although at the time Reddinger couldn’t have predicted what a massive hit Barbie Club would be when the club had its first meeting a week later on March 24th, it was evident among the student body that Barbie Club was all anyone needed in order to have a great Friday.

It all started with a shared passion between juniors Ruby McNeil, Adelaide Koontz, and Lane Reddinger. “A love for the simple joy of Barbie movies,” as McNeil put it. Hence, the club was founded with the idea that they would watch Barbie movies every Friday at lunch. The interest spread, and within a matter of days they had a diverse group of Barbie Club member wannabes totaling roughly 60 students. Nearly 12 of the interested students showed up and were ecstatic to begin the first day of the club by watching the beloved Barbie in A Mermaid Tale. The movie follows Barbie (called Merliah Summers), who soon notices her hair turning pink when she’s in water and later realizes she’s the half-mermaid princess of Oceana. 

McNeil explains this is what she admires about Barbie, “Barbie is the original ‘it girl’, as she has had over 200 job occupations and just has her whole together, outfits and all!” As recorded by BarbieMedia.com and Barbie.Fandom.com, Barbie hasn’t missed out on anything yet; she’s gone from being an astronaut in 1965 to a presidential candidate in the 1990s followed by numerous other notable careers. Since Mattel Inc. debuted Barbie in December of 1959, she has only grown in popularity with numerous movies being created about her life in the 2000s. Since then, many are in anticipation for the live-action Barbie movie to release this year starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken.

McNeil, Koontz, and Reddinger took the prime-time opportunity to create their incredibly successful Barbie Club which plans to meet every Friday at lunch in room A240/241 at Gallatin High. Many more will grow in Barbie Club’s numbers, that’s for sure, but at this time the exact number is unknown. Junior Marren Russell, who attended the movie and grew up watching movies such as Barbie and the Diamond Castle as a kid, said in anticipation to all the Barbie Club days of the future, “Barbie makes an impact.”