How my Barbie dolls led me to become a lawyer

The Tina Turner Barbie Doll. — Mattel/TNS

WHEN I was seven years old, Barbie was my first doll that might need a job instead of a diaper change. I imagined my Barbie as an archaeologist or a veterinarian or, a few years later when the space race began, an astronaut. Her future was unfettered.

In 1961, Mattel released the first Ken doll. For one year only, the debut Ken had flocked felt hair. And, woe is me, my Ken doll started going bald.