I don’t know about you, but I absolutely loved playing with my Barbie doll as a kid. That girl could do anything! She’s been a doctor, a teacher, an astronaut and even a boot camp extraordinaire, but in recent years, Barbie also went the SeaWorld trainer route. *Sighs!* Yep, that’s right. In 2012, Mattel added SeaWorld Trainer Barbie to its line of Barbie dolls. It was a sad day indeed for animal lovers and Barbie fanatics alike, but it definitely wasn’t the end!

Of course, we all know what happened next. Blackfish helped bring the truth about SeaWorld to living rooms across America, “Free Tilly” became a household phrase, and animal advocates doubled down on their efforts to close the parks. PETA contacted Mattel with damning evidence about SeaWorld’s abuse of captive marine mammals and asked the company to stop selling SeaWorld Trainer Barbie. We can’t let our girl get involved in that mess! Shocked-Kitty Of course, we all know what happened next. Blackfish helped bring the truth about SeaWorld to living rooms across America, “Free Tilly” became a household phrase, and animal advocates doubled down on their efforts to close the parks. PETA contacted Mattel with damning evidence about SeaWorld’s abuse of captive marine mammals and asked the company to stop selling SeaWorld Trainer Barbie. We can’t let our girl get involved in that mess! seaworld barbie
Barbie Ocean Friend | Freddycat1 | CC BY-SA 2.0 
  Since then, the public’s opinion has vastly changed, and so has Mattel’s. Its senior director and head of corporate communication responded to an e-mail from PETA last week to tell us, “[W]e do not produce that doll anymore. We’re well aware of and very sensitive to all the issues that you outlined. … We are not producing them anymore. No new ones will be made. We certainly don’t have any plans to produce the doll again in the future.” Bye-Bye-SeaWorld You go, girl! (My inner ’90s kid is doing some mad flips at this point.) Mattel joins a long list of companies and organizations that no longer want to promote SeaWorld, including Hyundai, JetBlue, the Miami Dolphins, Panama Jack, Southwest Airlines, Taco Bell, Virgin America, and many, many more. facebook share buttontwitter share button