ASPIRE T0 CHANGE BARBIE: CO-DESIGN AND CULTURE — DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE MINDS IN CHILDREN ABSTRACT// This essay explores the practice of co-design and its application in the development of persuasive design solu- tions. Insight is drawn from a project to develop environmentally cautious fashion dolls with a team of six year old girls in Vancou- ver, BC. This project examines identity, appropriation, and craft practice as tools to re-position the Barbie™ doll. By providing children with early access to craft culture and skills, they can more successfully negotiate the mass media messages of consumption and conformity while still engaging in the consumer culture that drives them. KEYWORDS// Co-Design, Craft, Children, Sustainability, Dolls, Barbie™, Toys INTRODUCTION// Fifty years after her introduction at the New York Toy Fair, Mattel’s Barbie™ doll has had a durable legacy. Sold to three generations of children, this fashion doll has portrayed over one hundred professions, survived decades of varying fash- ions, and remained a popular icon of American culture well into the Internet age. Barbie™ now sells one doll every three seconds, or over ten million dolls a year worldwide (Dougherty, 2009). Something aspirational in her still sells to the girls for whom she is marketed to just as fifty years previous. In light of her popular- ity, Mattel has failed to adapt this plastic toy to the realities of the emerging “green” market. My design team approached Patty Hill’s first grade class at False Creek Elementary (FCE) to meet with the children who were to help us design a sustainable toy. This project was a co-operative design challenge between my third year Industrial Design class at Emily Carr University and the kids at FCE, who we were told were to be our teammates and collaborators, and not simply consultants. These six-year old children were to direct us to design a toy or game that they would not only enjoy, but would possess the smallest environmental footprint possible. Neither of my teammates, Janice Wu and Jacquie Quenneville, nor I had any prior experience working with children on a design project. 22 CURRENT JnsHiloa__—_— Figure 1. VG Couture doll, designed by Ric Yuenn We prepared for our first session at the elementary school by talking to other design students who had worked with children of this age group. Each team of designers was paired with a pre- selected group of kids. We were teamed up with four girls. For two hours we played games, coloured drawings and talked about