Long before “Barbie” became a box office hit, Lagueria Davis was thinking about Mattel’s top doll.

She was not really into dolls – she hated them, in fact. But a relative who loved them was among the first Black employees at Mattel, and had a vast collection. That sparked the filmmaker’s interest. 

“Black Barbie,” her latest work, debuted in June on Netflix. It’s a collaboration with Shonda Rhimes, of “Bridgerton” and “Scandal” fame (who has two Barbies in her likeness). A previous version was shown at film festivals last year. 

Written and directed by Ms. Davis, the documentary focuses on the first Black doll to be called “Barbie.” She arrived in 1980, 21 years after the original Barbie. Viewers learn about the history – and scarcity – of Black toys, and the impact of that absence. Women share, emotionally at times, what it felt like not seeing themselves reflected on toy shelves or TV. “I just remember not feeling like I was beautiful because of my skin and my hair texture,” one woman explains. 

Representation is one of several themes in the documentary, which Ms. Davis spoke with the Monitor about. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

What does “Black Barbie” bring to the conversation about race and identity in the United States?

I think our film is one of the first projects to have a mainstream appeal that is from the Black woman perspective on the Barbie-verse. And so I think that our film really highlights some of the the wins, some of the failures, how much work we have to do. ... First and foremost, it’s a celebration of Black women – such as my aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, [and Mattel designers] Kitty Black Perkins [and] Stacey McBride-Irby.

What do you feel your film highlights about the difference in generations in terms of representation and toys?

The generational difference between the toys is that my aunt came up during a time where there weren’t any black Barbies. ... And what we’re seeing is the difference is that now there are Black dolls. And what’s interesting to me is, even though that is different, the experience is the same. In the film, I say that my aunt and I are from, you know, two different generations, yet we share a similar experience of not seeing ourselves reflected in the social mirror. 

You mentioned in the film that making it brought you joy. How so?

It brought me joy to learn about this history, to know the story behind Black dolls. I use a very strong word at the beginning of the film, I say I “hate” dolls. And for me, hate stems from a lack of understanding. And so I set out to get a better understanding of what it meant to have Black dolls, why my aunt loves Black dolls and collects Black dolls. ... I hope that there’s a little bit of that joy and inspiration that I got from making the film that transfers onto the audience watching as well.

What lack of understanding do you think the public may have about the journey Black dolls and toys have had in the U.S.?

I found texts in academia, and have read articles and little excerpts in books about Barbie from a Black woman lens, but nothing that is as accessible as our film. And so, you know, I think hopefully there’s an understanding of the stakes and the impact, and [I’m] hoping there’s an understanding of the humanity, and being empathetic to what it means to not see yourself, because I don’t know if it lands for white people who can see themselves everywhere. ... For the Black women and girls and people of color who watch this film, hopefully it’s something that makes them feel seen and heard. 

Research about how Black children interacted with Black and white dolls influenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education. You talk about that in the film, along with depicting new interviews with young people. What does that third chapter of the film suggest about the progress that’s been made since that earlier time and the challenges that remain?

You know, I don’t think in the film that we really try to put a label on how far we’ve gone or how far we’ve not gone. We just kind of lay it out and let the audience take from it what they will. ... I will say these kids [in the documentary] were brilliant. The level of understanding that they had I was somewhat floored by. The level of how deeply grounded and rooted in their identity [they were], and in a very affirmed way, was beautiful. It was beautiful. And then, for me, I feel like we do start to see a twist. They have a solid foundation that the parents have taken special pains to make sure they know their value and their worth. And then we start to see the cracks in that foundation. 

Could you share what you are referring to as cracks?

Watching the documentary, and I hope your audience watches, we do ask the question about who’s the real Barbie. And the children, none of them said any other Barbie except for [white] Malibu Barbie. Like she was the Barbie that everyone picked out as the real Barbie. And before that we have a Mattel worker saying that if you did ask kids, you know, they would choose several different Barbies as the real Barbie. And so you know for me, that was a huge crack.  

The film’s been updated to add professional women including ballet dancer Misty Copeland, Olympic medalist in fencing Ibtihaj Muhammad, and TV show runner Shonda Rhimes, who is now an executive producer on the film. How did the stories of these women, all of whom have been made into Barbies, further the themes you were trying to get at?

It was great because that was something that I definitely wanted to do was to have conversations about what it meant to be turned into a Black Barbie as a Black woman, and then also to have the conversation about what it meant to be the first. ... There’s a burden, as Shonda says in our film, that comes with that. Because if we fail, then the opportunity for the next [Black woman] may not happen. If my aunt wasn’t as personable and befriended [Mattel co-founder and Barbie creator] Ruth [Handler] as she did, then, as [UCLA professor] Patricia [Turner] says in the film, we’re not sure that Kitty would have been able to be hired as a chief designer. So all of these steps are important. 

One of your goals was the idea of Black Barbie being the focus, the hero, of her own story.

Black Barbie’s story is now in the mainstream, making her the hero in the center of this particular story. Not only just her, but the fabulous women behind her.