As a child, Ilona Maher hated her broad shoulders.
She hid them, compared them, and wished they were different. Today, those same shoulders are the mold for the first Barbie with an athletic, muscular build in history, launched just in time for International Day of the Girl and available in 2026. “My insecurities used to be my broad shoulders, my size, and my strength”, she told Women’s Health. But if a doll like this had existed when she was seven years old, she says, “I think it would have helped me” understand that that body could also be beautiful.
Maher, an Olympic bronze medalist with the United States rugby team and the rugby player with more social media followers than any other player, did not design this doll for herself. She designed it for the girls who today see themselves reflected among her more than 5 million Instagram followers. “I tell them: I know you”, she says of those young fans who see themselves in her. Her message is simple: try a sport, lift weights, and feel what your body is capable of. That strength, she says, carries over into everything else in life.
