Posted on by AP

In Pictures: Forest ecologist helps refashion Barbie dolls as scientists

This Dec. 3, 2019, photo taken on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City shows one of the "treetop Barbies" ecologist Nalini Nadkarni created outfitted with miniature versions of her own gear. Fifteen years after she began making the dolls, Mattel asked her to consult on a new line of Barbies with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Photo taken on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City shows one of the “treetop Barbies” ecologist Nalini Nadkarni created outfitted with miniature versions of her own gear. Fifteen years after she began making the dolls, Mattel asked her to consult on a new line of Barbies with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
This Dec. 3, 2019, photo, ecologist Nalini Nadkarni is shown in her lab on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City holding a Barbie created to look like her when she's climbing into the treetops to study the rainforest canopy. Nadkarni's childhood climbing trees shaped her career and now she's hoping she can get help kids interested in science in an new way: Barbies. Nadkarni has long created her own "treetop Barbies" and has now helped Mattel and National Geographic create a line of dolls with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Nalini Nadkarni is shown in her lab on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City holding a Barbie created to look like her when she’s climbing into the treetops to study the rainforest canopy.  (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
This Dec. 3, 2019, photo, ecologist Nalini Nadkarni is shown in her lab on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City holding a Barbie created to look like her when she's climbing into the treetops to study the rainforest canopy. Nadkarni's childhood climbing trees shaped her career and now she's hoping she can get help kids interested in science in an new way: Barbies. Nadkarni has long created her own "treetop Barbies" and has now helped Mattel and National Geographic create a line of dolls with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Nadkarni’s childhood climbing trees shaped her career and now she’s hoping she can get help kids interested in science in a new way: Barbies. Nadkarni has long created her own “treetop Barbies” and has now helped Mattel and National Geographic create a line of dolls with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
This Dec. 3, 2019, photo taken on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City shows one of the "treetop Barbies" ecologist Nalini Nadkarni created outfitted with miniature versions of her own gear. Fifteen years after she began making the dolls, Mattel asked her to consult on a new line of Barbies with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
One of the “treetop Barbies” ecologist Nalini Nadkarni created outfitted with miniature versions of her own gear.  (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
This Dec. 3, 2019, photo, ecologist Nalini Nadkarni is shown in her lab on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City holding a Barbie created to look like her when she's climbing into the treetops to study the rainforest canopy. Nadkarni's childhood climbing trees shaped her career and now she's hoping she can get help kids interested in science in an new way: Barbies. Nadkarni has long created her own "treetop Barbies" and has now helped Mattel and National Geographic create a line of dolls with careers in science and conservation. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Nadkarni decided to re-fashion the iconic dolls as a scientist-explorer in rubber boots rather than high heels after her own 6-year-old daughter asked for a Barbie. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
In this 2014 photo provided by Sybil Gotsch shows ecologist Nalini Nadkarni studying the rainforest canopy in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. Nadkarni's childhood climbing trees shaped her career and now she's hoping she can get help kids interested in science in an new way: Barbies. Nadkarni has long created her own "treetop Barbies" and has now helped Mattel and National Geographic create a line of dolls with careers in science and conservation. (Sybil Gotsch, via AP)
Nadkarni joined a team of female scientists advising Mattel as it made the line of dolls that includes a marine biologist, astrophysicist, photojournalist, conservationist and entomologist. (Sybil Gotsch, via AP)