THE BARBIE DREAM GAP PROJECT & YELP FOR LATINX BUSINESSES

Kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month, Barbie just announced a year-long partnership with Latinitas, a bilingual education nonprofit that works to empower girls in media and tech spaces. The project, which Mattel is calling the “Barbie Dream Gap Project,” will address the very real problem that “starting at age five, many girls begin to develop self-limiting beliefs and think they're not as smart and capable as boys.” The company is funding a research program with NYU that’s meant to dig deeper in this issue. Additionally, this month it introduced two new dolls in the Barbie universe, inspired by Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz and Dominican-American author Julia Alvarez, respectively.  

If you’re like me and don’t like going to restaurants and businesses unless you’ve fully vetted them on Yelp first, I’m here to tell you that the platform is going to help you do even better this month. The company partnered with Momento Latino to highlight Latinx-owned businesses in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Users will be able to use the new feature to identify Latinx-owned restaurants and businesses while they navigate the website and app. Because we all know that regrams and hashtags are great, but supporting the people and businesses in a community with your $$ is the best way to make meaningful change quickly.

Also! My favorite TikTok I saw this week: this girl’s dad casually joins in on the live music when they go out for dinner and the resulting moment honestly looks like pure joy.

—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist