Vegas physician chosen as Barbie role model
LAS VEGAS — As a Las Vegas physician, wellness advocate and lifestyle blogger, Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz is a lot of things. And now she’s a Barbie doll.
Toy company Mattel chose her as a role model for one of six new Barbies honoring women the company identified as heroes during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cruz, the 31-year-old mother of a young son, recalled playing with Barbie dolls as a child. She told the Las Vegas Sun she was in shock when Mattel contacted her.
“I was just in shock,” she said. “I was like, ‘What? I’m just this person. I don’t think that I’m special. I don’t feel like my story is that unique.’”
During the pandemic, Cruz worked as a frontline worker in hospital and clinic settings for Intermountain Healthcare in Las Vegas.
Her doll has long, brown hair and is wearing a white doctor’s coat, blue scrubs, stethoscope and tiny mask.
Cruz also blogged about her life as a doctor, posted wellness content and collaborated with other Asian-American physicians during a rise in anti-Asian-related crime to create a video accompanied by the hashtag #IAmNotAVirus.
“We wanted to use our voices to speak up for this population that may not necessarily be able to speak up for themselves or don’t have the platform that we do,” said Cruz, a Filipina American.
Mattel credits her with fighting racial bias and discrimination.
Cruz has “made a positive impact in her community, inspiring current and future generations for years to come,” a news release from the company said.
“I’m so incredibly honored to be a Barbie Role Model, shining a light on the commitment and compassion all frontline workers exhibited over the past year and a half and every single day,” Cruz said in a statement reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Cruz and Amy O’Sullivan, a registered nurse from New York who helped treat the first COVID-19 patient at Brooklyn’s Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and contracted the virus, were the only U.S. models for dolls.
Other honorees are Canada’s Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa, professor Sarah Gilbert of the United Kingdom, Dr. Jaqueline Goes de Jesus of Brazil and Dr. Kirby White of Australia.