Clara Amfo has been honoured with her own Barbie Doll after being unveiled as a Barbie Role Model following her powerful speech on racism.
The Radio 1 DJ, 36, has collaborated with Barbie on their ‘raise your voice’ campaign, which is a rally cry to girls to stand up for themselves and their beliefs.
In summer 2020, as the video of George Floyd‘s death sent shockwaves around the world, Clara made a powerful on-air speech with a call to action for anti-racism.
Honoured: Clara Amfo has been honoured with her own Barbie Doll after being unveiled as a Barbie Role Model following her powerful speech on racism
Clara said: ‘I have been lucky enough to experience some really special moments in my professional life and to say that I am honoured to be named a Barbie Role Model would be an understatement.
‘There is so much power in being able to see yourself reflected positively in the world as an adult and it’s even more potent as a child. That power and the confidence that comes with it should only be protected and amplified.
‘For me, having this doll represents the infinite possibility that I believe we all have a right to and my only wish it that it will do the same for anyone who sees her.’
Collab: The Radio 1 DJ, 36, has collaborated with Barbie on their ‘raise your voice’ campaign, which is a rally cry to girls to stand up for themselves and their beliefs
In a series of snaps, Clara posed with a one-of-a-kind doll created in her likeness, which was wearing an orange top and leather co-ords.
The doll sported a similar hairstyle to Clara and was wearing a pair of headphones in a nod to the star’s career, while accessorising with gold jewellery.
Clara is widely recognised as a powerful force for change across UK media, joining 15 other activists on the cover of the September Issue of British Vogue.
Clara is passionate about uplifting marginalised communities and a visible role model for young black women across the nation.
Powerful: In summer 2020, as the video of George Floyd’s death sent shockwaves around the world, Clara made a powerful on-air speech with a call to action for anti-racism
Clara said: ‘I have been lucky enough to experience some really special moments in my professional life and to say that I am honoured to be named a Barbie Role Model would be an understatement’
In June, the broadcaster broke down in tears on her radio show as she discussed her mental health struggles following the death of George Floyd.
Clara delivered a powerful speech on racism as she told listeners she was unable to come into work the day before and speak with ‘happy intention’ when she had spent the weekend devastated.
Discussing her powerful speech with Cosmopolitan, she said: ‘It was a culmination of all those weeks. [The death of] Ahmaud Arbery, then Breonna Taylor, and then, obviously, George Floyd, the list goes on.
‘And years before that, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland… You just carry it. You carry it with you and it just comes to that point where I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve just got to come with the realness.’ That’s why I said what I said.’
Clara said: ‘There is so much power in being able to see yourself reflected positively in the world as an adult and it’s even more potent as a child’
She added: ‘I knew I wanted to speak about [George Floyd] because, at that point, I’d just had enough of not sharing that side of who I am.’
Clara also thanked her listeners, she continued: ‘If I was going through anything else – God forbid, if I had an illness or if I was going through a painful break- up – honestly, I’d tell my listeners because they’re cool like that.’
The star admitted that although she is grateful for people’s support she doesn’t want her professional legacy to be ‘that girl who cried on the radio’.
She said: ‘That day definitely made me feel my purpose in my job, more than anything I’ve done, but I don’t want my professional legacy to be ‘That girl who cried on the radio’.’
Barbie girl: In a series of snaps, Clara posed with a one-of-a-kind doll created in her likeness, which was wearing an orange top and leather co-ords
Clara added: ‘I’m so much more than that; we’re all so much more than these moments.
‘It’s not that I’m not grateful for what people are saying, but I think, for my own brain space, I know what I said in that moment and now those words are out there, they’ve travelled to people.
‘Now I want the truth of those words, for the people who felt affected by them, to pay it forward, to do the work.’
Role model: Clara is widely recognised as a powerful force for change across UK media, joining 15 other activists on the cover of the September Issue of British Vogue
Talking about the work and steps that need to happen next, Clara admitted that she has been reflecting on her own privileges.
She said: ‘I’ve had to reflect on myself and my own privileges. Because within Black Lives Matter, there’s Black Trans Lives Matter. I’ve had to look at myself as a straight person.
‘I’ve had to look at [myself] in the very same way that I’ve been asking white people to look at themselves. It’s important for all of us to take accountability for how we move through the world.’
Proud: The doll sported a similar hairstyle to Clara and was wearing a pair of headphones in a nod to the star’s career, while accessorising with gold jewellery
Honouring female role models is one of the ways the Barbie brand is working to close the Dream Gap; the time when girls start to doubt that they can be anything.
Clara and Barbie have chosen to partner with grassroots London project Milk Honey Bees to help make a difference to girls.
Milk Honey Bee’s mission is to celebrate black girlhood by creating an expressive safe space that allows young Black women and girls to flourish and take ownership through 1:1 sessions and creative group projects.