When it came time for the mentorship weekend, the team had done a lot of coordinating. Now that the girls weren’t able to get their hands dirty in Kittie’s studio or take a tour of Min’s office, we had to get all the materials they needed to their homes. Each girl was to get a Designer’s Kit with the materials they needed to make a Barbie®-sized version of their design. Six girls + six designs = six different boxes. Hui Ping was the one who put those together and sent them out. (Our Shopee history looks wild.)

I was the lucky duck who got to host each session. Of course, we wanted the mentors to have the floor - but we also needed to have someone in there to play the role of silly sausage and general icebreaker. I’m so grateful for that weekend with the girls because of the way it drew out their personalities. Some of the more confident presenters seemed to prefer working quietly, with careful concentration. Others took the opportunity to joke around with us and share even more about their hobbies and dreams. Getting to watch Min and Kittie work with the girls was even more of a treat. If you read our press release, it’ll tell you that Min’s session was all about helping the girls find their personal style and that Kittie walked them through how to make their designs real for their Barbie® dolls. Their sessions did cover those things, of course, but I think the most valuable gift our mentors gave our winners was the opportunity to spend time with kind, caring, adults who happen to have jobs in their dream industry.

A few weeks passed between the mentorships and when it was time to next get together for the Unboxing Session. Kittie and her team had worked around the clock and through multiple pandemic-related sourcing issues to meet the original deadline. Without being able to meet the girls in person, they had to cut and sew according to the measurements that we collected. Some of the designs had to be modified slightly, so we were all a little nervous about how the girls would respond to the life-sized versions of their outfits, but with the grace of participants more than twice their age, they embraced the dresses with awe and unfettered enthusiasm. 

As we waited for their home recordings of them “walking the runway” in an appropriate stretch of their house to be uploaded to the designated Google Drive folder, I continued to think about what this experience was like from their perspective. Often when we’re building experiences for people, we miss the big picture because we’re busy fiddling with all the little gears that are required to keep the whole thing running smoothly. How would I have handled everything as a six-year-old? If I had miraculously made it to this stage, how willing would I have been to speak up during the mentorship sessions? And that’s when it really sunk in that this whole experience was about far more than getting a taste of the fashion industry. 

Because as the girls cut out the little shapes that would become their Barbie®’s dresses, they also got to talk about things going on in their lives. Without those sessions we wouldn’t have learned about Inara’s flair for skateboarding or that Nina, who is six, has already shed her training wheels. We wouldn’t have been able to check in with Alayna about how her piano exam went or seen that Olivia made two Barbie® dresses in the time that it took everyone else to make one. I wouldn’t have been able to induct Umaa into #waterclub (our favourite drink is water) or got to enjoy Khayrah’s glittery unicorn shirt. I believe it is that time they spent with our team, Kittie, and Min that will be the kindling that lights the fire that will warm them as they continue to grow.

Growing up,  I didn’t have the affinity to Barbie® that these girls have - but I did have that sharpener. When Lincoln and I were darting around his kitchen, whispering codes to each other through our “walkie-talkies”, I did have a Barbie® experience. It was an unconventional one, yes, but still somehow true to the brand’s promise that You Can Be Anything. 

And again I’m reminded that the true potential of something can only be realised when you’re ready to see it for not what it is, but for all it could be.

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Amanda Shiew