On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 Mattel announced their new Inspiring Women Barbie doll line. 

"Girls have always been able to play out different roles and careers with Barbie and we are thrilled to shine a light on real life role models to remind them that they can be anything," wrote Lisa McKnight, senior vice president and general manager of Barbie, in a news release.

Laverne Cox is an American actress and LGBT advocate who rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word. This made her the first openly transgender woman to win a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer. Also in 2015, she became the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds. In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on CBS's Doubt. In June 2014, Cox became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. In May 2016, Cox was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School in New York City for her progressive work in the fight for gender equality. In February 2018, Cox became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of any Cosmopolitan magazine (specifically, Cosmopolitan South Africa).

Laverne Cox is the definition of the 'inspiring woman'. To many young women and men around the world Laverne Cox is a symbol of what you can achieve if you are true to who you are. She epitomizes not only the messages of the Inspiring Women and Sheroes Barbie doll lines but that of Barbie herself. But brings its message of being who and what you want to be into our ever changing world; from inspiring the limitless potential in every girl to inspiring the limitless potential in every person.

The creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler once said, "My whole philosophy of Barbie was that, through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices."

Laverne Cox IS Barbie.