Models bring Barbie to life through career-themed fashion show at Strong Museum

Barbie Exhibit

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Strong National Museum of Play unveiled its new Barbie exhibit on Saturday. The exhibit features dolls depicting female trailblazers with the hope of inspiring children to image their career possibilities.

To mark the exhibit’s opening, the Mary Therese Friel Modeling Agency held a fashion show where models showcased over 30 different career outfits including a surgeon, a photographer, and a top chef. There will be another fashion show on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the museum’s Paychex Theatre.

Mary Therese Friel, the founder and CEO of the modeling agency, the models have enjoyed getting creative by bringing Barbie’s many careers to life.

“When you see little girls dream and you say to them ‘don’t let anyone stop you from dreaming big because you can be anything that you want to be’, they see it and they believe it. And they take that forward. If you look at the Barbie line, it’s so amazing because they’ve done such as great job at depicting all the different careers,” she said.

The exhibit runs through May 12. It includes dolls depicting aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, NASA scientist Katherine Johnson, Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, and jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.

Guests can not only learn about the more than 200 careers that Barbie dolls have depicted in the past 60 years but also visualize their own career by taking a photo inside a Barbie box.